Paper
18 February 2004 Optical design of a Michelson wide-field multiple-aperture telescope
Frederic Cassaing, Beatrice Sorrente, Bruno Fleury, David Laubier
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Multiple-Aperture Optical Telescopes (MAOTs) are a promising solution for very high resolution imaging. In the Michelson configuration, the instrument is made of sub-telescopes distributed in the pupil and combined by a common telescope via folding periscopes. The phasing conditions of the sub-pupils lead to specific optical constraints in these subsystems. The amplitude of main contributors to the wavefront error (WFE) is given as a function of high level requirements (such as field or resolution) and free parameters, mainly the sub-telescope type, magnification and diameter. It is shown that for the periscopes, the field-to-resolution ratio is the main design driver and can lead to severe specifications. The effect of sub-telescopes aberrations on the global WFE can be minimized by reducing their diameter. An analytical tool for the MAOT design has been derived from this analysis, illustrated and validated in three different cases: LEO or GEO Earth observation and astronomy with extremely large telescopes. The last two cases show that a field larger than 10 000 resolution elements can be covered with a very simple MAOT based on Mersenne paraboloid-paraboloid sub-telescopes. Michelson MAOTs are thus a solution to be considered for high resolution wide-field imaging, from space or ground.
© (2004) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Frederic Cassaing, Beatrice Sorrente, Bruno Fleury, and David Laubier "Optical design of a Michelson wide-field multiple-aperture telescope", Proc. SPIE 5249, Optical Design and Engineering, (18 February 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.515215
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KEYWORDS
Telescopes

Space telescopes

Wavefronts

Distortion

Mirrors

Monochromatic aberrations

Optical design

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