Rayleigh resolution limit API

Computes the diffraction-limited angular resolution θ = 1.22·λ/D for a circular aperture, in radians/arcseconds, plus the smallest resolvable separation at a target distance. Answers 'What is the resolving power of this aperture?', 'How small a detail can it distinguish at range?'.

Price$0.04per request

MethodPOST

Route/v1/engineering/rayleigh-resolution

StatusLive

MIME typeapplication/json

Rate limit120/minute

Cache0s public

opticsrayleighresolutiondiffraction-limitaperturetelescopeairyphysics

API URLhttps://x402.hexl.dev/v1/engineering/rayleigh-resolution

Integration docs

Example request

{
  "wavelengthNm": 550,
  "apertureDiameterM": 0.1,
  "targetDistanceM": 1000
}

Example response

{
  "angularResolutionRad": 0.00000671,
  "angularResolutionArcsec": 1.384037,
  "angularResolutionDeg": 0.0003844547,
  "minResolvableSeparationM": 0.00671,
  "interpretation": "Two points are just resolvable if separated by at least 1.384 arcsec."
}

Input schema

{
  "type": "object",
  "required": [
    "wavelengthNm",
    "apertureDiameterM"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "wavelengthNm": {
      "type": "number",
      "description": "Wavelength (nm)",
      "examples": [
        550
      ]
    },
    "apertureDiameterM": {
      "type": "number",
      "description": "Aperture diameter (m)",
      "examples": [
        0.1
      ]
    },
    "targetDistanceM": {
      "type": "number",
      "description": "Distance to target for linear separation (m)",
      "examples": [
        1000
      ]
    }
  }
}

Output schema

{
  "type": "object",
  "additionalProperties": true
}