Dr.

E M Mohammed
Reader in Physics
Maharaja’s College
Ernakulam
Kerala
India - 682011
 Objectives

Reflective and Refractive Telescopes

Telescope Optics
Optical Aberrations
Telescope Configurations
Telescope Mount
•The earliest known telescope.

Giovanpattista della Porta included this

sketch in a letter in August 1609

Galileo's telescope
Reflective and Refractive telescopes
As we are observing at very large distances,
light can be assumed to come from infinity
Represented as parallel rays

Three Main Functions

Light Collectors : Simple telescopes focus light to
a smaller area
Resolve light so that finer details can be seen
Magnification Making objects look bigger (closer)
Basic Refractor Type
Basic Reflector Type
Real Image formed here
For research telescopes or for astrophotography we will
place the analyzer (e.g. photometer, spectrometer) at the
location of the focal plane
For direct visualization we need an eyepiece to properly
collect the light through the objective lens or primary mirror
into the eye

Focal point of objective and eyepiece coincide

 Optics Review
Lens formula: 1/i +1/o =1/f
 Telescope Optics
One of the important characteristic of a telescope
is its Focal ratio (or f / number)

Telescope’s aperture diameter = 5 cm

Focal length of primary = 25 cm
Focal ratio = 25/5 = 5 ( a f/5 telescope)
Fast Telescope (or fast scope < ~6)
Small focal ratio (or small f/ number)
So short telescope for fixed aperture
Wide Field of view (with same eyepiece)
Excel at low power (low magnification) views of deep sky
objects, e.g. galaxies, nebula, or open clusters
Slow Telescope ( or Slow scope, >~8)
Large focal number
Narrow field of view (with same eye piece)
Good for high power (magnification), small field
observing, e.g. planets, double stars
Most large research telescopes are slow
e.g. Hubble Space Telescope (f/24)
Negative sign in formula dropped
 Exit Pupil
The size of image of objective lens as seen by the eyepiece is
called the Exit Pupil
All light passing through the objective must also pass through
the Exit Pupil

Eye Relief : distance between eyepiece and exit pupil

Let D = diameter of the Primary mirror or objective lens
And d = diameter of the exit pupil

Usually fe >> fo and we have

Practical Information:
Diameter of Human pupil ~ 7 mm
Comfortable eye relief ~ 6 – 10 mm
 Optical Aberration

Any deviation from perfection of an image

not due to diffraction are known as
aberrations
There are six primary aberrations:
Spherical, Coma, Astigmatism, Distortion,
Field curvature and Chromatic aberration
All except the Chromatic aberration affect
both refractive and reflective telescopes.
Chromatic affects only refractive telescopes
 Spherical Aberration

Spherical aberration depends on shape factor (R2+R1/R2-R1)

Aplantic lens is free from spherical aberration and coma
 Distortion

Usually seen in thick double convex lenses

Differential transverse magnification for different distances
of image away from optical axis
Explain why there is a practical limitation in the
magnification achievable from a simple magnifier
Ortho-scopic lens is free from distortion
 Field Curvature

The focal plane is not a plane, but a curved surface

Flat detectors e.g. CCD will not be in focus over its
entire region
Plano objectives eliminates this curvature effect
 Chromatic Aberration
Snell’s law

Where n1, n2 are the index of refraction of the two media

Chromatic Aberration
 Misaligned Astigmatic

Good

Spherical Aberration Poor Seeing

 Summery of Aberrations
Spherical Mono-chromatic (affects single
wavelength light), on and off axis only
Coma Mono-chromatic, off axis only
Astigmatism Mono-chromatic, off axis only
Distortion Mono-chromatic, off axis only
Field Mono-chromatic, off axis only
curvature
Chromatic Hetero-chromatic (affect multiple
wavelength light, on and off axis
Different types of Telescopes
Newtonian

The first working reflector (1668, 1 inch diameter)

Eye piece moved to the side of the telescope
 Cassegrain

Basic configuration for most large research telescopes

(eg. Hubble, Keck 10 m, VLT 8.2 m)
Secondary mirror produces narrow cone of light
Can have large focal length compared to the physical
length of telescope (telephoto advantage)
Small field of sharp focus (few arc minutes)
 Ritchey-Chretien

Variation of the Cassegrain

Removes coma aberration
Good quality images over a larger field of view
(10 – 20 arc minutes)
 Combined Reflector and Refractor
Schmidt Camera

Wide Field of view (6 – 10 degree) good for sky surveying work

Polomar, Siding Spring (1.2 m) are these types
Telephoto is the disadvantage (long telescope length versus focal
length)
 Schmidt-Cassegrain

Compact design: compromise of large field of view and long

focal length

Popular design for small telescopes, especially for astro-

photography
New developments of optical telescope

36 mirror segments (1.8 m) equivalent of a single 10 m mirror

 Equatorial Mounting
Two axes: polar axis
(parallel to Earth’s rotation
axis) and declination axis
(perpendicular to polar
axis) Star tracking can be
done with only one
constant speed motor
rotating in opposite
direction of Earth’s rotation
along polar axis.

Expensive to build and

asymmetry gravity effects
 Alt-Azimuth Mounting
Used by all big (>4m) telescopes
recently built. Symmetric gravity
effects, cheaper to build

To track objects in the sky need

two axes rotating at different
speed.
Rotation of image during tracking
need to be overcome (by rotating
cameras) the Dead-zone near
zenith.
Eight Inch refracting telescope
Thank You