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We present a design for a wide-field spectroscopic telescope. The only large powered mirror is spherical, the resulting spherical aberration is corrected for each target separately, giving exceptional image quality. The telescope is a…
As telescope apertures increase, the challenge of scaling spectrographic astronomical instruments becomes acute. The next generation of extremely large telescopes (ELTs) strain the availability of glass blanks for optics and engineering to…
Deformable mirrors are increasingly used in astronomy. However, they still are limited in stroke for active correction of high amplitude optical aberrations. Magnetic Liquid deformable mirrors (MLDMs) are a new technology that has…
Spaced-based mirrors are a developing use-case for Additive Manufacturing (AM), the process that builds a part layer-by-layer. The increased geometric freedom results in novel and advantageous designs previously unachievable.…
The latest high-performance telescopes for deep space observation employ very large primary mirrors that are made of smaller segments, like the JWST which employs monolithic beryllium hexagonal segments. A very promising development stage…
We present two novel designs for a telescope suitable for massively-multiplexed spectroscopy. The first is a very wide field Cassegrain telescope optimised for fibre feeding. It provides a Field Of View (FOV) of 2.5 degrees diameter with a…
In the development of space-based large telescope systems, having the capability to perform active optics correction allows correcting wavefront aberrations caused by thermal perturbations so as to achieve diffraction-limited performance…
The advent of extremely large telescopes will bring unprecedented light-collecting power and spatial resolution, but it will also lead to a significant increase in the size and complexity of focal-plane instruments. The use of freeform…
The volume available on small satellites restricts the size of optical apertures to a few centimetres, limiting the Ground-Sampling Distance (GSD) in the visible to typically 3 m at 500 km. We present in this paper the latest development of…
We present a proposal of a new type of telescopes using a rotating parabolic strip as the primary mirror. It is the most principal modification of the design of telescopes from the times of Galileo and Newton. In order to demonstrate the…
In this white paper (WP), we highlight several examples of small and moderate aperture telescopes that are being used for education and/or research. We further discuss potential costs for establishing new, small observatories, as well as…
One important frontier for astronomical adaptive optics (AO) involves methods such as Multi-Object AO and Multi-Conjugate AO that have the potential to give a significantly larger field of view than conventional AO techniques. A second key…
In this paper we present HighRes: a laboratory demonstration of a 3U CubeSat with a deployable primary mirror that has the potential of achieving high-resolution imaging for Earth Observation. The system is based on a Cassegrain telescope…
The most pressing problems in modern astrophysics have often required the largest telescopes. With the cost scaling of mirror diameters, the field as a whole is faced with a challenge -- how to replicate or improve on the collecting area…
We have studied the feasibility and scientific potential of zenith observing liquid mirror telescopes having 20 to 100 m diameters located on the moon. They would carry out deep infrared surveys to study the distant universe and follow up…
Active optics is defined as the control of the shape and the alignment of the components of an optical system at low temporal frequencies. For modern large telescopes with flexible monolithic or segmented primary mirrors and also flexible…
(abridged) The Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST) is undergoing a design study for a large (50 meter) single-dish submm-wavelength Ritchey-Chr\'etien telescope to be located 5050 meters above sea level in the Atacama…
The spaceborne laser emission telescope is a core and critical component of the space gravitational wave detection system.Compared with ground-based telescopes, the on-orbit space environment is more complex and harsh, presenting higher…
A new generation of telescopes with mirror diameters of 20 m or more, called extremely large telescopes (ELTs) has the potential to provide unprecedented imaging and spectroscopy of exo-planetary systems, if the difficulties in achieving…
The imaging and spectroscopy of habitable worlds will require large-aperture space-based telescopes, to increase the collecting area and the angular resolution. These large telescopes will necessarily use segmented primaries to fit in a…