Occulting Disk

An occulting disk is a small disk used in a telescope to block the view of a bright object in order to allow observation of a fainter one. The coronagraph, at its simplest, is an occulting disk in the focal plane of a telescope, or in front of the entrance aperture, that blocks out the image of the solar disk, so that the corona can be seen.

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Famous quotes containing the word disk:

    Unloved, that beech will gather brown,
    This maple burn itself away;

    Unloved, the sun-flower, shining fair,
    Ray round with flames her disk of seed,
    And many a rose-carnation feed
    With summer spice the humming air;
    Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)