Abstract

High- resolution imaging requirements push telescope designs to increasingly large apertures and consequently large primary mirror sizes. Conventional astronomical telescopes require high-optical-quality primary mirrors. In order to achieve and maintain high surface quality at large apertures, such mirrors are monolithic, extremely heavy and very costly to fabricate and transport. These considerations limit the aperture sizes of present day ground-based and space-based astronomical telescopes. In recent years, compensated imaging techniques have been studied as possible solutions to the problem of imaging with low-optical-quality primary mirrors. With relaxed requirements on the surface quality of the primary mirror, alternative lightweight architectures for telescope systems become feasible.

© 1997 Optical Society of America