Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🛌 Unconscious states ☄️ Comet clouds 🔭 Optical blurs 🌱 Seed hairs
comae

comae

9.9
Lens or telescope blur that makes point lights look like comets
  • noun
  • /ˈkoʊmiː/
  • Specialized
translation icon : coma
  • Careful lens alignment can help minimize comae in astrophotography images.

Examples

  • Photographers often encounter comae when using wide-aperture lenses at night.

  • The astronomer adjusted the telescope to reduce the number of visible comae in the star field.

  • The telescope's lens showed several comae around distant stars.

  • What causes the comae to appear in telescopes?

  • The astronomer adjusted the telescope to reduce the number of visible comae in the star field.

  • Photographers often encounter comae when using wide-aperture lenses at night.

  • Careful lens alignment can help minimize comae in astrophotography images.

How Blurred

comae
  • Specialized
9.9
focus
104 2.5

Surface Forms

coma singular
comae plural

Morphology

comae = coma (semi-transparent) = coma + ae

Clear relation to the singular 'coma' but uses the Latin plural '-ae', which is irregular for many learners.

Etymology

The word comae is the plural of coma in optics and comes from the Latin coma 'hair' because these blurs look like tiny comet tails or hair-like streaks. A helpful way to remember is to imagine a bright star with a small comet tail, which is why such blurs are called comae.