Rigel Picostar fibre-optic LED artificial star

Picostar is an artificial star designed as an aid for the collimation and testing of telescope optical systems. Conventional star testing requires both clear skies and good seeing conditions.

Picostar can be used anytime anywhere, even during the daytime. Accurate collimation and testing requires an intense white light source of very small physical dimensions such that the angular size of the light source when viewed from the telescope is less than the resolving power of the optical system under test.

Picostar provides the perfect solution using modern fibre-optic technology. A 50 ìm diameter core fibre terminated in a polished ceramic ferule is coupled to an ultra high intensity white light emitting diode.

The unit is light and compact with adjustable intensity over an eight magnitude range. Power is provided by a single 9V alkaline battery (accessible from a sliding compartment) with a typical lifetime of 16 hours at maximum intensity. The graph showing minimum operating distances was calculated using the more stringent Rayleigh criterion and the diameter of the optical fibre core as the artificial star diameter and represents a "worst case" performance.

In practice, the user may find shorter operating distances provide adequate performance.