Related papers: Parabolic Strip Telescope
Adaptive optics (AO) offers an opportunity to stabilize an image and maximize the spatial resolution achievable by ground based telescopes by removing the distortions due to the atmosphere. Typically, the deformable mirror in an AO system…
The surface of a spinning liquid takes the shape of a paraboloid that can be used as a reflecting mirror. This very old and nearly forgotten concept has recently been revived and I review its present status. Extensive interferometric tests…
We discuss a new technology that promises large inexpensive mirrors. We argue that it should be possible to tilt a rotating viscous liquid by perhaps as much as a few tens of degrees. The tilted liquid parabolic surface is used as the…
A modified version of the folded aplanatic Gregory telescope equipped with a spherical two-lens corrector is proposed for observations requiring a high signal-to-noise ratio. The basic telescope model has an aperture of 400 mm (f/3.0), its…
The angular resolution is tha ability of a telescope to render detail: the higher the resolution the finer is the detail. it is, together with the aperture, the most important characteristic of telescopes. We propose a new construction of…
The utilization of a 6.5m monolithic primary mirror in a compact three-mirror anastigmat (TMA) telescope design offers unprecedented capabilities to accommodate various next generation science instruments. This design enables the rapid and…
The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), the largest single dish radio telescope in the world, has implemented an innovative technology for its huge reflector, which changes the shape of the primary reflector from…
A new optical design concept of telescopes to provide an aberration-free, wide field, unvignetted flat focal plane is described. The system employs three aspheric mirrors to remove aberrations, and provides a semi-circular field of view…
I argue that there is a crisis in optical Astronomy due to a paucity of telescopes and thus the need for a paradigm shift in telescope technology. Large increases in collecting areas and observing time/astronomer are only possible if we…
We present a new procedure for the construction of parabolic mirrors using low cost materials. We build a spinning system composed of nylon threads, fish hooks and a plastic bucket. We pour liquid plaster into the bucket and set it in…
Sensitivity and resolution of space telescopes are directly related to the size of the primary mirror. Enabling such future extremely large space telescopes or even arrays of those will require to drastically reduce the areal weight of the…
We propose and experimentally demonstrate the Transformable Reflective Telescope (TRT) Kit for educational purposes and for performing various optical tests with a single kit. The TRT Kit is a portable optical bench setup suitable for…
Technological advances will allow the placement of many Terahertz detectors at the focal plane of a single telescope. For a telescope of a given diameter and wavelength of operation, there is a limit to the number of usable detectors…
On-chip optical trapping systems allow for high scalability and lower the barrier to access. Systems capable of trapping multiple particles typically come with high cost and complexity. Here we present a technique for making parabolic…
Two versions of a fast, purely reflective Paul-Baker type telescope are discussed, each with an 8.4-m aperture, 3 deg diameter flat field and f/1.25 focal ratio. The first version is based on a common, even asphere type of surface with zero…
We designed and built a novel model of a deployed space telescope which can reliably align its segments to achieve the finest possible resolution. An asymmetric design of both the segment shapes and their pupil locations were tested in…
Imaging is of great importance in everyday life and various fields of science and technology. Conventional imaging is achieved by bending light rays originating from an object with a lens. Such ray bending requires space-variant structures,…
Off-axis parabolic mirrors (OAPs) are occasionally desirable for specialized applications, but are known to introduce field-dependent astigmatic aberrations. In an experiment where optical tweezers are formed by OAPs, another OAP is added…
The size of the optics used in observatories is often limited by fabrication, metrology, and handling technology, but having a large primary mirror provides significant benefits for scientific research. The evolution of rocket launch…
NRT is an international project to build and operate the world's largest robotic telescope. The telescope will have a segmented primary mirror with an equivalent diameter of 4 m, a set of simultaneously mounted optical and near-infrared…