This Field Guide is a concise, organized reference that explains the functions and configurations of astronomical instrumentation. It provides an overview of aspects of astronomical instrumentation from principles of general optics and optical design to optical manufacturing and systems engineering. Practitioners will also gain valuable information on polarimeters, interferometers, coronagraphs, cryogenics, software, and more.

This Field Guide to Astronomical Instrumentation is the one book that the three of us would want to carry with us if we had to single-handedly design an astronomical instrument on a remote mountain top. To keep it concise, it focuses on the ultraviolet to infrared wavelength range. The Field Guide is not intended to serve as a textbook, but as a handy desktop reference to be found in the labs and offices of instrument builders.

This book contains information on a wide range of topics, from fundamental physics to project management, and from technical concepts to material properties. Only the most important concepts and equations are presented here. In many areas, dedicated SPIE Field Guides discuss particular topics in much more detail. While we tried to maintain consistency with other volumes in this series, we wrote this Field Guide in the language that instrumental astronomers use, which might sometimes look strange to people working in other areas.

A Field Guide that strives to cover such a wide variety of topics will naturally overlook some potentially relevant topics. We look forward to suggestions from our readers on how to improve this Field Guide for its next edition.

Last but not least, we greatly appreciate the continuous support of our families in this endeavor.

Christoph U. Keller
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, The Netherlands

Ramon Navarro
NOVA Optical & Infrared Instrumentation Division at ASTRON, The Netherlands

Bernhard R. Brandl
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, The Netherlands