English

SPT-3G secondary mirror geometry

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics 2018-09-24 v1

Abstract

SPT-3G is a detector system for the 10m diameter South Pole Telescope, comprising 16,000 millimeter-wave bolometers. It is used for a deep Cosmic Microwave Background survey of the Southern sky. This paper describes the geometry of the secondary mirror, which is a section of a prolate spheroid, in several useful coordinate systems. There is application to off-axis mirrors in general. A geometric theorem is proven, relating to the Dragone condition: the intersection of a prolate spheroid and any plane is an ellipse; the lines connecting points on that ellipse to either focus compose a right circular cone; the central axes of the two cones from the two foci intersect outside the interior of the spheroid.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1809.08212,
  title  = {SPT-3G secondary mirror geometry},
  author = {Antony A. Stark},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1809.08212},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

34 pages, 1 figure, C program

R2 v1 2026-06-23T04:14:17.967Z