Telescope Optics

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Telescope Optics

A Comprehensive Manual for Amateur Astronomers by Rutten and van Venrooij, 6.00" by 9.00", 374 pages, hardbound, published 1988, 4th Printing 1999, 2 Lbs. 4 Ozs. ship wt., $24.95. (book only, software described below extra.)

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This book will both arouse your curiosity and answer your questions. Why are there so many different kinds of telescopes? What does each type have to offer? What makes one telescope better than another? Which are best? Why? What are the tradeoffs? As a telescope buyer, you will be better informed; as a telescope maker, you will be able to design custom optics.

Many readers will find the analyses of existing designs the most valuable part of the book. Newtonians, Cassegrains, Maksutovs, Schmidt cameras and more are described and analyzed so that you can easily compare them. What's your dream telescope? This book will help you choose it.

Others will make use of the power they now have to check, test, and analyze new telescope designs. The design and raytrace programs available as an option to this book will give you the tools you need to begin with a basic design and work systematically until you have created an optimized optical system that meets your personal design criteria. You'll be able to try new types of glass, design a telescope around that corrector shell you have parked in the basement, even compare the performance of many different eyepieces on your telescope.

No longer must you, as an amateur astronomer, meekly accept someone else's opinion about a telescope design. You can scrutinize existing designs and improve them to meet your own standards. Is that new astrographic camera all it's cracked up to be? By raytracing it, you'll know the answer. Here is what three reviewers had to say about this book.

The great merit of the book is in the large number of ray trace spot diagrams shown for the specific designs covered, which allow quick comparison of their performance with regard to field of view, focal ratio, and tube length. Complete optical prescriptions for each design are included. In addition, the book offers the professional designer, who may not have been exposed to the concerns of amateur astronomers, the opportunity to round out his experience. There is a marvelous diagram, the “Telescope Design Tree,” which displays the genealogy of the multitude of design types in a clear, efficient manner and updates the old adage about pictures worth a kiloword. It is remarkable that once again amateurs have contributed so greatly to fill a gap left by the professionals.
                                     Optics & Photonics News

This is a ‘comprehensive manual for amateur astronomers’. It describes the optical performance of most of the types of telescope bought (or built) and used by amateurs, and explains why some are suitable for visual observations, and others for photography, some for lunar and planetary work, others for faint and extended nebulae or star clusters. To facilitate comparisons, spot diagrams have been computed for all the telescopes described, and nearly all of them for a standard aperture of 200mm... The chapter on eyepieces is particularly informative... recommended for advanced amateurs...
                    Journal of the British Astronomical Society

Anyone who wants to know more than just how to use a telescope can learn some optics from this book by two Dutch amateur astronomers, turned optical designers. You’ll acquire a good understanding of the performance possible with the various types of telescopes and have a chance to try your hand as an optical designer.
Telescope Optics provides a comprehensive analysis of practically any type of telescope an amateur would use for visual observation or photography. Coverage of the many types of catadioptric systems is outstanding. Taken in total, it is an optical design book, but written in such a way that amateur astronomers will find it of value whatever their level of interest, and the person seriously interested in design will find it a godsend. I recommend it highly for any serious amateur and for the professional who is going to work in these areas.
                                 Sky & Telescope Magazine

OPTIONAL SOFTWARE

In order to compare various telescope designs for Telescope Optics , Harrie Rutten wrote programs to run on his home computer. These programs were not "user friendly" since his main goal was only to secure data and spot diagrams. Diane Lucas has adapted these programs for the IBM-PC, $24.95. If you are purchasing this software after you have purchased the book please provide us with the serial number in the space "Where did you hear about Willmann-Bell ..." on the order form.

The result of this effort is three easy-to-use programs:

TDESIGN , a powerful design program for Cassegrain or catadioptric telescopes, which produces a pre-design based on third-order aberration theory. These designs are preliminary and must be further optimized since they are computed on third order Seidel theory. In most cases, these predesigns are quite accurate—within 5% of the final values—and often much better. Final optimization is done by skew ray tracing with RAYTRACE.

LENSDES , a powerful design program for doublet and triplet lenses, which produces designs that are complete and require no further optimization.

RAYTRACE , a fast and powerful raytracing program that can trace up to 2,800 rays through axially symmetric, tilted, or decentered systems with flat, spherical, conic, or aspherically deformed optical surfaces, with or without vignetting. The output of this program can be in graphical or tabular form.

Editor's Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1 Development of the Amateur Telescope
     1.1. Early Developments
     1.2. 20th Century Developments
Chapter 2 First Order Optics: Lenses and Mirrors
     2.1. Refraction and Reflection
     2.2. Image Formation
     2.3. The Optical System of the Telescope
     2.4. Flat Plates and Prisms
Chapter 3 Image Aberrations and Their Presentation
     3.1. The Spot Diagram
     3.2. Image Aberrations
     3.2.1. Spherical Aberration
     3.2.2. Coma
     3.2.3. Astigmatism
     3.2.4. Curvature of Field
     3.2.5. Distortion
     3.3. Chromatic Aberrations
          3.3.1. Longitudinal Chromatic Aberration
          3.3.2. Lateral Color
     3.4. Presentation of Image Aberrations with Spot Diagrams
     3.5. Scaling Optical Systems
     3.6. Concluding Remarks
Chapter 4 The Newtonian Telescope
     4.1. Introduction
     4.2. The Spherical Mirror
     4.3. The Paraboloidal Mirror
     4.4. The Size of the Secondary Mirror
Chapter 5 The Refractor
     5.1. Correction of Aberrations
     5.2. Residual Aberrations in Objective Lenses
          5.2.1. Chromatic Aberration
          5.2.2. Spherical Aberration and Spherochromatism
     5.3. Evaluation of Lens Objectives
Chapter 6 The Cassegrain Telescope
     6.1. Introduction
     6.2. Curvature of Field
     6.3. Optical Performance
     6.4. Baffling
Chapter 7 The Schmidt Camera
     7.1. Introduction
     7.2. Optical Principles
     7.3. The Schmidt Corrector
     7.4. Characteristics of the Schmidt Camera
     7.5. Results of Optical Ray Tracing
     7.6. The Field-Flattened Schmidt Camera
     7.7. The Lensless Schmidt
Chapter 8 The Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope
     8.1. General Classification
     8.2. Treatment of Systems
     8.3. "Visual" Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope
     8.4. Close Focusing in the SCT
     8.5. Flat-Field Schmidt-Cassegrain Systems
     8.6. Computer-Aided Design
Chapter 9 The Maksutov Camera
     9.1. Introduction
     9.2. Maksutov Camera Designs
     9.3. The Optimum Meniscus Corrector
Chapter 10 The Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope
     10.1. Introduction
     10.2. Maksutov-Cassegrain Systems
     10.3. Meniscus Correctors
     10.4. Curved- and Flat-Field Maksutov-Cassegrain
Chapter 11 The Schiefspiegler
     11.1. Introduction
     11.2. Optical Principles of Schiefspieglers
     11.3. Results of the Optical Ray Tracing
Chapter 12 Other Compound Systems
     12.1. Introduction
     12.2. Full-Aperture Correctors: Schmidt Derivatives
     12.3. Full-Aperture Correctors: Houghton Derivatives
     12.4. Focal Correctors: Jones, Bird, and Brixner
     12.5. Unusual Compound Systems
     12.6. Gregorians, Relay Telescopes, and Wright's Off-Axis Catadioptric
Chapter 13 Field Correctors
     13.1. Introduction
     13.2. The Single-Lens Field Flattener
     13.3. The Distant Field Flattener
     13.4. Field Correctors for Newtonians
Chapter 14 Focal Extenders and Reducers
     14.1. Focal Extenders
     14.2. Focal Reducers
     14.3. Remarks on Achromatic Combinations
Chapter 15 Eyepieces for Telescopes
     15.1. Introduction
     15.2. Eyepiece Types
     15.3. Aberrations and Other Eyepiece Characteristics
     15.4. Ray-Tracing Eyepieces
     15.5. Ray-Trace Results for Eyepieces 7
     15.6. Eyepieces Used for Projection
     15.7. The Performance of Objective-Eyepiece Combinations
          15.7.1. Introduction
          15.7.2. Astigmatism and Field Curvature
          15.7.3. Accommodation of the Eye
          15.7.4. Analyzing Objective-Eyepiece Combinations
          15.7.5. Combinations Examined
          15.7.6. Results of Ray Tracing
          15.7.7. Discovering Favorable Objective-Eyepiece Combinations
Chapter 16 Deviations, Misalignments and Tolerances
     16.1. Introduction
     16.2. Surface Accuracy
     16.3. Deviations and Misalignment
     16.4. Influence of Deviations and Misalignments
     16.5. Tolerance Analysis
     16.6. Correcting Manufacturing Deviations
Chapter 17 Resolution, Contrast, and Optimum Magnification
     17.1. Introduction
     17.2. Resolving Point Sources
     17.3. Resolving Power and Contrast for Extended Objects
     17.4. Contrast Transfer in a Perfect Optical System
     17.5. Contrast Transfer for Imperfect Optical Systems
     17.6. Central Obstructions
     17.7. Obstructed Telescopes for Visual Use
     17.8. Residual Aberrations
     17.9. The Value of the Contrast Transfer Function
     17.10. Optimum Magnification
Chapter 18 Opaquing and Vignetting
     18.1. Introduction
     18.2. Baffles for Refractors and Newtonians
     18.3. Baffling for Cassegrain Telescopes
     18.4. Stops and Vignetting
     18.5. Internal Reflections in Catadioptric Systems
     18.6. Lens Coatings
Chapter 19 Optical Calculations
     19.1. Introductory Remarks to Chapters 20 and 21
     19.2. Methods of Optical Calculation
     19.3. Optical Surfaces
          19.3.1. Conic Sections
          19.3.2. Higher-Order Surfaces
     19.4. Sign Conventions
     19.5. The Paraxial Calculation
     19.6. The Seidel Calculation
     19.7. The Meridional Calculation
     19.8. The Skew-Ray Trace
          19.8.1. Introduction
          19.8.2. Flat Surfaces
          19.8.3. Spherical Surfaces
          19.8.4. Conic Sections
          19.8.5. Higher-Order Surfaces
     19.9. Calculation of Non-Centered Systems
     19.10. Using Ray-Trace Results
          19.10.1. Magnitude of the Image Aberrations
          19.10.2. Determining the Diameters of Optical Elements
     19.11. Other Optical Calculations
Chapter 20 Designing Telescope Optical Systems
     20.1. Introduction
     20.2. Designing a Cassegrain
     20.3. Designing a Catadioptric Cassegrain
     20.4. Designing a Schmidt-Cassegrain
     20.5. Designing a Houghton-Cassegrain
     20.6. Designing a Maksutov-Cassegrain
     20.7. Designing Single-Mirror Catadioptrics (Astrocameras)
     20.8. Designing Schmidt and Wright Cameras
     20.9. Designing a Houghton Camera
     20.10. Designing a Maksutov Camera
     20.11. The Shape of the Schmidt Corrector
     20.12. Optimization Techniques
     20.13. Designing a Two-Element Refractor Objective
          20.13.1. Introduction
          20.13.2. Doublet Design Procedure
          20.13.3. Achromatizing a Doublet Lens
          20.13.4. Correcting Spherical Aberration
          20.13.5. Correcting Coma
          20.13.6. Reducing Spherochromatism
     20.14. Other Degrees of Freedom
     20.15. An Alternate Method of Designing a Doublet
     20.16. Designing a Three-Element Apochromatic Refractor Objective
     20.16.1. Choosing Glass for a Triplet
     20.16.2. The Powers of the Elements
     20.16.3. Designing a Triplet
     20.16.4. Examples of Triplets
     20.17. Thick Optical Elements
Chapter 21 How to Use the Telescope Design Programs
     21.1. Capabilities
     21.2. Designing telescopes with TDESIGN
     21.2.1. Designs Available with TDESIGN
     21.2.2. Using TDESIGN
     21.3. Lens Design with LENSDES
          21.3.1. Designing Lenses
          21.3.2. Using LENSDES
          21.3.3. Doublet Design with LENSDES
          21.3.4. Triplet Design with LENSDES
          21.3.5. Rescaling Doublet and Triplet Designs
     21.4. The Telescope Optics Ray Tracing Program
          21.4.1. Using RAYTRACE
               21.4.1.1. Key Commands
               21.4.1.2. Loading and Saving Design Files
               21.4.1.3. Creating a New Design
               21.4.1.4. Examining an Optical System
          21.4.2. Vignetting Calculations
          21.4.3. Tilted and Decentered Surfaces
          21.4.4. Notes on Vignetting Computations
          21.4.5. Data Input Exercises
     21.5. Optimizing Predesigns from TDESIGN
          21.5.1. The Wright Design
          21.5.2. The Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope
          21.5.3. The Houghton Camera
          21.5.4. The Houghton-Cassegrain Telescope
          21.5.5. The Maksutov Camera
          21.5.6. The Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope
          21.5.7. Automatic Optimizations
Appendix A - Optical Glass Specifications
References
Index

OPTIONAL SOFTWARE

Table of Contents