Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/iii/paper-338/2/a/vi/solution

For a large aperture in the standard turbulence model, astronomical seeing is approximately radians, with Fried parameter . Maintaining comparable correction requires a deformable mirror actuator pitch of order , so the number of actuators across a diameter is proportional to and the total illuminated actuator count is proportional to . Therefore
Longer wavelengths require fewer actuators and have slightly smaller uncorrected atmospheric angular blur, even though the telescope's diffraction-limited resolution scale increases with wavelength.

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