Planewave instruments technologies optical, mechanical. Use the program plop to optimize the back support for the mirror pointing to the zenith. The design and assembly of aluminum mirrors of a threemirror. The companion to the hubble space telescope will be launched into space to reveal the new secrets of the universe. To gain familiarity with optical and optomechanical design techniques, two systems were studied. It ray traces the telescope checking for vignetting, optimizes diagonal size, calculates baffle size and position and more. In this letter, we present a method to design the freeform surfaces of an offaxis unobscured twomirror telescope by. The eelt optical design differs from other elt designs mostly by including adaptive optics into the telescope. Two versions of the planner have been developed one for netscape and one for internet explorer.
It is a single optical surface of the primary mirror that creates the image, while the flat merely directs light out to the side, to an accessible observing location. The three mirror designs i have looked at are based on the original paul camera design from 1935, in which there is a parabolic primary, a convex spherical secondary, and a concave spherical tertiary which is located at one radius from the secondary. An equation whose factors allow the shape of the image surface to be controlled is also derived. Optical design of threemirror telescope system researchgate. In practice, the design may also include any number of flat fold mirrors, used to bend the optical path into more convenient configurations. The caris mirror lab has been busy working on this project, and just completed the second mirror in july. And then an obtained design from the analytical treatment is proceeded to be confirmed and completed by means of commercial software such as code v 14. In october 2016, the astri telescope prototype, image 1 a novel, dualmirror schwarzschildcouder telescope design proposed for the cherenkov telescope array cta, passed its biggest test yet. An overview over the components of the fcita is given in fig. Newt for the web newtweb for short is a newtonian telescope computer aided design program.
Accurate digitized astronomical data, planetarium software, smartphones, coma correctors, well corrected wide angle eyepieces, meniscus mirrors, 3d printing, digital cameras and image processing software represent the vanguard of the latest in telescope design. It supports the telescopes weight while also allowing you to rotate its. Revolutions in telescope design are driven by dreamers. Fields bordered in green are for numerical entry or choiceselected values. The heliostat tracks the sun, or any observable object, and directs the. The usual design is a trishiefspiegler, such as the one in the diagram above. Small diagonal flat df placed in the focal zone of the secondary mirror directs the light out to the side, where is located tertiary mirror. It is a telescope design software of the most popular telescope systems used by the amateur astronomers and telescope makers, including spot diagrams, ray fans, wave aberrations, diffraction analysis, optical layout, optimization, tolerancing, mirror testing and many other atm tools. Software is key for deep space exploration industry. The fcita telescope optics to is a three mirror anastigmat tma consisting of four lightweight zerodur mirrors.
Discussion approach to mirror cell design to design a mirror cell that will make your mirror perform at its very best, follow this procedure. The newtonian telescope design planner uses javascript to perform the mathematical calculations. A design method for unobstructed, offaxis, reflective optical system is proposed. Another reason for this is because even with the movingframe cell design, it is difficult to take the mirror out of the cell and put it back in and get the sling back to exactly the right spot. The work was done using an hpsystem 35 desktop computer. This design uses three mirrors to allow a compact telescope design with a long focal length. John removes the mirror from his 25 telescope when transporting it, so this is a major consideration. At las campanas, a 40person crew finished excavating the telescopes foundation last spring. It allows you to easily and quickly change any of the design parameters of the telescope and to see the results. Nov 14, 2016 in october 2016, the astri telescope prototype, image 1 a novel, dual mirror schwarzschildcouder telescope design proposed for the cherenkov telescope array cta, passed its biggest test yet. It begins with a paraboloidal primary mirror of the same fratio as that desired in the final instrument. Largeaperture, threemirror telescopes for nearearth. The cdk is coma free, has no offaxis astigmatism, and has a flat field. A threeobjective microscope 150x, 450x and 900x brings the.
Nexstar 4se computerized telescope celestron telescopes. The design and assembly of aluminum mirrors of a three. The optical diameter of the primary mirror is the glass substrate od minus 2 x the bevel width. The two mirror ritcheychretien telescope using rotationally symmetric hyperbolic surfaces was designed and built. Pdf wide field of view threemirror telescopes having a. The secondary and tertiary mirrors are spherical and of mating curve. Skyalign technology gets your telescope aligned and ready to observe in minutes.
In optical design software such as zemax or codev, an optical surface is represented with a sag function defined in equation 3. The telescope design relies on three powered surfaces with strict constraints on surface form, roughness and stability. The mirrors utilize an open back design with thin ribs and a reduced face skin thickness to give a weightrelieved and optimized approach to reducing overall mass and transmitted loads. The size of the newtonian secondary and how it affects image contrast will be the main topic discussed here. Based on the three mirror anastigmat tma, when pupil and field of view are offaxis properly, obstructing. In this letter, we present a method to design the freeform surfaces of an offaxis unobscured two mirror telescope by integration of a system of differential equations. Baffle design and stray light analysis of the offaxis. Image stacking software example keiths image stacking software. There are three basic types of telescope design refracting, reflecting, and catadioptric, and the robert ferguson observatory operates all three types.
Three mirror telescope designs atm, optics and diy forum. Large collection of other freeware related to astronomy and other areas of interest. A range of software tools were used to create the james webb space telescope. Summarize oppgtical design of a newtonian telescope.
Stevickpaul telescopes are offaxis versions of paul 3 mirror systems with an added flat diagonal mirror. Four new giant telescopes are about to rock astronomy. Light enters aperture stop, reflected by m2, m3 and folding mirror m4 and reaches focal plane assembly fpa. The three mirror telescope 3mt has been developed at the institute of astronomy by dr. Telescope types and designs there are three basic types of optical telescopes refractor, newtonian reflector and catadioptric. This four mirror design includes three mirrors with optical power the elliptical primary, hyperbolic secondary, and elliptical. Design and optimization technique for threemirror telescopes. This makes an assessment of their approach difficult. All of these telescopes are designed to collect light and bring it to a focus point so that it can be magnified by an eyepiece, however each design does it in a different manner. This is the major starting point for designing your telescope. The shiefspiegler is a multiplereflection telescope which uses tilted mirrors to produce a long, unobstructed light path. A high performance design and optimization technique for three mirror telescopes, based on the generation of rigorously aplanatic configurations, has been developed.
A threemirror anastigmat is an anastigmat telescope built with three curved mirrors, enabling it. The fcita telescope optics to is a threemirroranastigmat tma consisting of four lightweight zerodur mirrors. Differential method for freeform optics applied to twomirror. Wide field of view threemirror telescopes having a common optical axis. Prototype telescope demonstrates viability of novel. Rather than argue over the merits of this program, we instead take the available information and design a similar system intended for finding near earth crossing. Modas stands for modern optical design and analysis software it is a telescope design software of the most popular telescope systems used by the amateur astronomers and telescope makers, including spot diagrams, ray fans, wave aberrations, diffraction analysis, optical layout, optimization, tolerancing, mirror testing and many other atm tools. Unique single fork arm design and sturdy steel tripod all break down into separate components for easy transport and quick assembly. Obstructed telescopes vs unobstructed telescopes for wide field. However, many of the threemirror telescope designs suffer. To design a mirror cell that will make your mirror perform at its very best, follow this procedure. Pdf analytic design procedure of threemirror telescope.
An optical designer will tell you that field curvature is one of the five. Alignment concept for the three mirror anastigmat telescope. The cdk corrected dallkirkham telescope is based on a new optical design developed by dave rowe. Based on the threemirror anastigmat tma, when pupil and field of view are offaxis properly, obstructing. The most popular telescope design among amateurs newtonian reflector consists from a single concave primary mirror and a reflecting flat. Osa differential method for freeform optics applied to. This category lists all free software related to making, designing or having anything to do with telescopes. Even if youre unfamiliar with the night sky, you can easily align your telescope on any three bright objects. Although reflecting telescopes produce other types of optical aberrations, it is a design that allows for very large diameter objectives. Use this mirror edge support calculator to analyze the edge support for the mirror pointing to the horizon. By definition, threemirroranastigmat tma telescopes consists of three conic. Aperture stop locates at the primary mirror m1, which has clear aperture of 550 mm.
Telescope analysis software that allows the user to design their telescope. Many telescopes, even beginner models, ship with software to help aim the telescope. Design of reflective three mirror anastigmat telescope. The stray light properties of the offaxis threemirror telescope was analyzed and the basic design principles of the light shade and baffle vanes were presented,then the design of them was discussed. If you seek more features, you could also purchase software separate from what accompanies the telescope. Software design for the control system for smallsize. Among the sst projects, the smallsize telescopes with singlemirror sst1m is a 4 m daviescotton telescope, which comprises proven technology for the telescope structure, and innovative electronics and photosensors for the camera.
Size refers to the primary mirror or refracting glass used in the telescopenot the length of the telescope or the magnification. The design is a simple and elegant solution to the problems posed above. Oct 08, 2019 the caris mirror lab has been busy working on this project, and just completed the second mirror in july. Single mirror telescope product design description document. A aplanatic three mirror telescope 3a with spherical concave primary and secondary, and with ellipsoidal prolate ellipsoid concave tertiary. Modas stands for modern optical design and analysis software. Largeaperture, threemirror telescopes for nearearth space. Modas freeware telescope design and analysis for atm description. At this point, if you have read our previous introduction, you should have selected or know the diameter and focal ratio of your primary mirror. Download citation optical design of threemirror telescope system a configuration. A tripod is a threelegged support device for the telescope. The kh11 kennan or perhaps the now cancelled future imagery architecture telescopes may be a threemirror anastigmat, since the spare telescopes given to nasa by the national reconnaissance office are of this form.
A high performance design and optimization technique for threemirror telescopes, based on the generation of rigorously aplanatic configurations, has been developed. It consists of three primary parts, the heliostat, the telescope, and the spectroscope. It ray traces a newtonian telescope design checking for vignetting, optimizes diagonal size, calculates baffle sizes and positions, and produces performance and dimensional data for construction. The method is used to design the freeform surfaces of a telescope whose performance is verified in offtheshelf optical design software zemax. A aplanatic threemirror telescope 3a with spherical concave primary and secondary, and with ellipsoidal prolate ellipsoid concave tertiary.
Nexstar 6se computerized telescope celestron telescopes. Size refers to the primary mirror or refracting glass used in the telescope not the length of the telescope or the magnification. Practical calculations for designing a newtonian telescope. Its optical design is unique because it is the only form of telescope which combines the three advantages of a wide field of view, very small sharp images, and allreflection optics. Introduce you to newtonian telescope characteristics. Boston university s solar telescope was designed and constructed by jeffrey baumgardner in 1977. According to the first order calculation based upon and optimization by commercial software, optical design layout is shown in fig. An artists impression of the deployed jwst in orbit showing the telescope mirror and matching sunshade credit.
The goal of the design is to make an affordable astrographic telescope with a large enough imaging plane to take advantage of. The three mirror designs i have looked at are based on the original paul camera design from 1935, in which. According to the first order calculation based upon 8 and optimization by commercial software, optical design layout is shown in. The kh11 kennan or perhaps the now cancelled future imagery architecture telescopes may be a three mirror anastigmat, since the spare telescopes given to nasa by the national reconnaissance office are of this form. However, we need to specify to newtweb a few more items to successfully design our telescope. A set of equations is developed which yields the constructional parameters of threemirror allreflecting optical systems. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century, by isaac newton, as an alternative to the refracting telescope which, at that time, was a design that suffered from severe chromatic aberration. Threemirror anastigmat telescope with an unvignetted flat focal. Use the program plop to optimize the back support for the mirror pointing to the zenith use this mirror edge support calculator to analyze the edge support for the mirror pointing to the horizon. Optical designs based on three aspheric mirrors dubbed threemirror anastigmat. The large synoptic survey telescope is a modified three mirror anastigmat of paulbaker design.
An exploration of the freeform twomirror offaxis solution space. The software was used to bring together all the solver. The heliostat tracks the sun, or any observable object, and directs the light to the telescope. The cdk design suffers from none of these problems.
Fields initially containing calcd andor are bordered in red are always calculated and cannot be manually entered fields bordered in yellow are either calculated initially contain a ck value or will accept a keyed entry by clicking on the field. Vla made the interesting point about using one of the several aplanatic three mirror telescope designs which can utilize a parabolic primary. Freeware version will support up to three mirror surfaces a newtonian is 2, for example. At present, very little information regarding the design of this telescope is available in the open literature. The large synoptic survey telescope is a modified threemirror anastigmat of paulbaker design.