Limiting Magnitude of a Telescope A telescope is limited in its usefulness by the brightness of the star that it is aimed at and by the diameter of its lens. One measure of a star's brightness is its magnitude; the dimmer the star, the larger its magnitude. A formula for the limiting magnitude L of a telescope, that is, the magnitude of the dimmest star that it can be used to view, is given by
where d is the diameter (in inches) of the lens.
(a) What is the limiting magnitude of a telescope?
(b) What diameter is required to view a star of magnitude 14?
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