Reflective Schmidt anastigmat telescopes and pseudo-flat made by elasticity

Abstract

The recent need in space astronomy for wide-field telescopes having the best transmission and exempt from the chromatic aberration in uv, the severe conditions of the aspheric surface quality for the shortest wavelength, leads to new developments both in the theory and design of those surfaces. A two-surface all-reflective Schmidt telescope is analyzed (1) with Fermat’s principle and (2) with Abbe sine condition. A dioptric elasticity method is presented to aspherize the primary mirror which is a nonaxisymmetric surface. Experimental results are given for an f/1.5, 180 mm focal length all-reflective Schmidt.