https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/1510.00015/Collected HN comments and submissions linking this paper.enMon, 02 Nov 2026 11:16:22 GMThttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10992344urn:hackerpapers:mention:1510.00015:10992344Thu, 28 Jan 2016 23:23:42 GMT<p>Ultimately the reason these small telescopes are so useful for finding these faint, diffuse galaxies is because the surface brightness of an object is independent of the collecting area. Larger optical telescopes have much better resolution, so the amount of light detected from a diffuse galaxy is fairly similar per pixel to a little telescope like Dragonfly. But a little telescope costs probably about three orders of magnitude less than a big telescope and you can afford to hammer a particular target night after night, whereas you&#x27;d be lucky to have an hour of time on a large telescope.…</p><p><a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/1510.00015/">Paper and discussion history</a>. A mention is not an endorsement.</p>astro-ph.EP