Demonstration of the Golay3 multiple-mirror telescope with a spherical primary mirror

Abstract

The sparse aperture system is a novel solution to design larger telescope of high angular resolution by utilizing several small sub-apertures to displace the full aperture. The system is of light weight and low cost. Multiple-mirror telescope (MMT) is one type of sparse aperture systems. We have analyzed the Golay3 MMT with a spherical primary mirror to obtain the relationships between the sub-mirrors on the primary mirror and the shapes of sub-apertures on the entrance pupil with different relative aperture by investigating the entrance pupil characteristics. The maximum fill factor and the maximal overlay factor were derived, and the tangency condition when sub-mirrors of the Golay3 MMT are tangency was also given out. The expressions of the point spread function (PSF) and the modulation transfer function (MTF) of the Golay3 MMT were deduced. The characteristics of both the PSF and the MTF were obtained based on the deduced formulas and Matlab simulating patterns. Two Cassegrain telescopes of a spherical primary mirror with the Golay3 configuration and with an aspherical secondary mirror were designed. Based on the relationships between the fill factor and the overlay factor, the optimal parameters of sub-mirrors on the primary mirror were selected. The PSFs and MTFs of Cassegrain telescopes with the Golay3 MMT were designed by Zemax simulation. The simulation results are consistent with the theoretical results.