This page illustrates the effect of photon noise on a
classical telescope point spread function. The two sliders
located underneath the two images allow you to adjust the
parameters of the simulation. The START and STOP buttons at
the bottom of the page allow you to control a more dynamic
simulation in which the images are frequently refreshed.
Slider 1: allows you to increase or decrease the total
number of photons one expects in the frame. Although not
very probable, it is possible that, when expecting a very
small number of photons (1?), over the many iterations
this simulation may run, the frame features more than what
you expect.
Slider 2: allows you to change the diameter of the
aperture of the simulated telescope. You will notice when
going toward very small apertures that it looks more and
more like a square and the PSF also looses a bit of its
centro-symmetric properties.
