Two-mirror aplanatic telescopes with a flat field

TL;DR

This paper presents two-mirror aplanatic telescopes with flat fields, enabling wide-field imaging with minimal reflective surfaces, beneficial for space and non-optical applications.

Contribution

It introduces new two-mirror aplanatic telescope designs with flat focal surfaces, expanding field of view and reducing optical surfaces needed.

Findings

Achieved flat medial focal surface in two-mirror systems

Expanded field of view compared to classical telescopes

Reduced number of reflective surfaces for space applications

Abstract

A complete description is given of two-mirror telescopes with a flat medial focal surface, on which the images of stars are circles of least confusion. Particular attention is paid to aplanats, since their field of view is noticeably larger than that of classical systems. Two sets of appropriate solutions correspond to Schwarzschild and Gregorian telescopes. As a result, it becomes possible to use flat light detectors with wide-field two-mirror telescopes. New designs are of particular interest when as few reflective surfaces as possible are required, which is typical for space exploration and non-optical observations.