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Optical Design with the Schmidt Concept – Telescopes and Spectrographs

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Astronomical Optics and Elasticity Theory

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Abstract

The basic principle of the wide-field telescope invented by the Estonian optician and astronomer Bernhard Schmidt in 1928 ([67–70], E. Schmidt [72]), is that a single concave and spherical mirror used with a pupil stop at its center of curvature has no unique axis and therefore yields equal size images at all points of its field of view. In the third-order theory, the mounting is free from Coma3 and astigmatism Astm3; all images have the same amount of spherical aberration, Sphe3, coming from the spherical mirror. By using a refractive corrector plate at the mirror center of curvature, one therefore yields equally good images in the whole field of view. In the historical context in Europe, three scientists had previously developed the theoretical analysis on aplanatic telescopes in the two-mirror class, but none of them found or realized that the primary mirror could be used off-axis or could be replaced by an on-axis refractive element. Kellner who patented in 1910 [25] several designs using a corrector lens, locates the plate in a wrong position for wide-field compensations. Schmidt placed the aspherical plate at the mirror center of curvature and emphasized the importance of this location for the entrance pupil of the telescope. The curved focal surface is a monocentric sphere with the mirror. In 1930–31, he succeeded in constructing the first wide-field telescope, 36 cm clear aperture at f/1.75, with which he demonstrated the wide-field performance on 7.5 arc degrees during the two subsequent years. He obtained with Wachmann, about two hundred exposures onto curved films showing perfect images. Such astronomical object densities were never seen before. In 1932, Schmidt published his famous article “Ein Lichtstarkes Komafreies Spiegelsystem” [70] and photographies [71]. In fact, his coma-free i.e. aplanatic telescope is also free from third-order astigmatism: nowadays, this is called an anastigmatic telescope. Review papers on B. Schmidt’s work were published by Schorr [73], Mayall [47], Wachmann [84, 85], Kross [27] and more recently by E. Schmidt [72], his nephew.

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  1. Technopôle Château Gombert, Observatoire Astronomique Marseille Provence (OAMP), 38 rue Frédéric Joliot-Curie, 13388, Marseille CX 13, France

    Gérard René Lemaitre

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Lemaitre, G. (2009). Optical Design with the Schmidt Concept – Telescopes and Spectrographs. In: Astronomical Optics and Elasticity Theory. Astronomy and Astrophysics Library. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68905-8_4

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