Chapter 15

Mirror and Catadioptric Systems

Curved mirrors, concave or convex, have often been used as image-forming systems, either alone or in combination with lens elements. Historically, most large astronomical telescopes have used a concave mirror to form the primary image, which is then relayed and magnified by either a second concave mirror (Gregorian) or a convex mirror (Cassegrain), although the objectives of small telescopes are generally achromatic lenses. Very small aspheric or spherical mirror systems have occasionally been used as microscope objectives. A single mirror used alone must generally be aspheric to correct the spherical aberration, but by combining two or more mirrors, with perhaps some lens elements also, it is possible ...

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