Exact optics - III. Schwarzschild's spectrograph camera revised

Abstract

Karl Schwarzschild identified a system of two mirrors, each defined by conic sections, free of third-order spherical aberration, coma and astigmatism, and with a flat focal surface. He considered it impractical, because the field was too restricted. This system was rediscovered as a quadratic approximation to one of Lynden-Bell's ‘exact optics’ designs which have wider fields. Thus the ‘exact optics’ version has a moderate but useful field, with excellent definition, suitable for a spectrograph camera. The mirrors are strongly aspheric in both the Schwarzschild design and the exact optics version.