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Re: [OM] Comment on resolution, was Third party lenses

Subject: Re: [OM] Comment on resolution, was Third party lenses
From: Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003 08:17:07 -0400
Moose asked:
And how does that work with a cadioptric lens? I did some measurements
of mirror lenses and found that the 0f total aperture taken up by the
secondary mirror mount varies quite a bit, which might affect this
resolution thing, although it always seems to be properly subracted in
calculating the effective f-stop.
---------------------------------------
I think the principal fault introduced by the secondary is to add another diffraction edge and reduce contrast. Insofar as contrast and resolution are not totally separate then I suppose the actual resolution is reduced somewhat. Since the photographic lenses lenses tend to be relatively fast (f/5.6-8) compared to telescopes (f/10-15) and since they need even illumination over a larger field of view the secondary has to be fairly large.

The photographic lenses also tend to be Maksutov designs probably because the secondary can be designed such that it's nothing but an aluminzed spot on the back of the Maksutov corrector lens. No additional mechanical support or adjustments required. However, I think the Maksutov corrector lens is thick enough that chromatic abberation could be a design concern. Also, over about 90-100mm diameter the Maksutov lens begins to get very expensive to manufacture. The Schmidt corrector plate is so thin and so nearly plano-parallel that chromatic abberation is not a worry and (for the last 30 years or so) is relatively inexpensive to build in large diameters.

Having said all this I just decided to check the optical layout of the Oly 500mm reflex and see that it is not a Maksutov design. I was surprised at the number of refractive elements.

Chuck Norcutt
Woburn, Massachusetts, USA


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