Parabolic Strip Telescope

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel telescope design using a rotating parabolic strip as the primary mirror, demonstrating its feasibility through an image reconstruction experiment of an artificial constellation.

Contribution

It introduces a new telescope concept based on a rotating parabolic strip and validates it with a practical image reconstruction demonstration.

Findings

Successful image reconstruction of artificial constellation

Demonstration of the feasibility of the parabolic strip telescope design

Potential for simplified telescope construction

Abstract

We present a proposal of a new type of telescopes using a rotating parabolic strip as the primary mirror. It is the most principal modification of the design of telescopes from the times of Galileo and Newton. In order to demonstrate the basic idea, the image of an artificial constellation observed by this kind of telescope was reconstructed using the techniques described in this article. As a working model of this new telescope, we have used an assembly of the primary mirror---a strip of acrylic glass parabolic mirror 40 cm long and 10 cm wid shaped as a parabolic cylinder of focal length 1 m---and an artificial constellation, a set of 5 apertures in a distance of 5 m illuminated from behind. In order to reconstruct the image, we made a series of snaps, each after a rotation of the constellation by 15 degrees. Using Matlab we reconstructed the image of the artificial constellation.