Written by a recognized expert in the field, this clearly presented, well-illustrated book provides both advanced level students and professionals with an authoritative, thorough presentation of the characteristics, including advantages and limitations, of telescopes and spectrographic instruments used by astronomers of today. - Written by a recognized expert in the field - Provides both advanced level students and professionals with an authoritative, thorough presentation of the characteristics, including advantages and limitations, of telescopes and spectrographic instruments used by astronomers of today

These "excursions" into astronomical optics discuss innovative, often radical, suggestions for the design of optical instruments. Providing a storehouse of ideas and approaches not available elsewhere, Mertz suggests opportunities for further exploration and development rather than proven solutions. Covering a wide array of topics, from x-ray telescopes to gravitational lenses and from microscope objectives to Fourier transform spectroscopy, the excursions share a common thread of optical science related to astronomy. The book should thus interest researchers and graduate students in astronomy, optics, and optical engineering. Appendices provide Fortran code for some of the design techniques discussed in the book and for Monte Carlo image synthesis

Astronomical Optics and Elasticity Theory provides a very thorough and comprehensive account of what is known in this field. After an extensive introduction to optics and elasticity, the book discusses variable curvature and multimode deformable mirrors, as well as, in depth, active optics, its theory and applications. Further, optical design utilizing the Schmidt concept and various types of Schmidt correctors, as well as the elasticity theory of thin plates and shells are elaborated upon. Several active optics methods are developed for obtaining aberration corrected diffraction gratings. Further, a weakly conical shell theory of elasticity is elaborated for the aspherization of grazing incidence telescope mirrors. The very didactic and fairly easy-to-read presentation of the topic will enable PhD students and young researchers to actively participate in challenging astronomical optics and instrumentation projects.

This book by one of the leaders in adaptive optics covers the fundamental theory and then describes in detail how this technology can be applied to large ground-based telescopes to compensate for the effects of atmospheric turbulence. It includes information on basic adaptive optics components and technology, and has chapters devoted to atmospheric turbulence, optical image structure, laser beacons, and overall system design. The chapter on system design is particularly detailed and includes performance estimation and optimization. Combining a clear discussion of physical principles with numerous real-world examples, this book will be a valuable resource for all graduate students and researchers in astronomy and optics.

Adaptive optics is set to revolutionise the future of astronomy; this is the first book on the subject and is set to become the standard reference.

This text was written to provide students of astronomy and engineers an understanding of optical science - the study of the generation, propagation, control, and measurement of optical radiation - as it applies to telescopes and instruments for astronomical research in the areas of astrophysics, astrometry, exoplanet characterization, and planetary science. The book provides an overview of the elements of optical design and physical optics within the framework of the needs of the astronomical community.

This book—unique in the literature—provides readers with the mathematical background needed to design many of the optical combinations that are used in astronomical telescopes and cameras. The results presented in the work were obtained by using a different approach to third-order aberration theory as well as the extensive use of the software package Mathematica®. Replete with workout examples and exercises, Geometric Optics is an excellent reference for advanced graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in applied mathematics, engineering, astronomy, and astronomical optics. The work may be used as a supplementary textbook for graduate-level courses in astronomical optics, optical design, optical engineering, programming with Mathematica, or geometric optics.

For every astronomical topic that I have approached there has turned out to be a broader realm of possibilities than is commonly accepted or acknowledged. The "excursions" of this book are the examples. They mostly depart from the mainstream of conventional wisdom to offer a wider perspective with opportunities for further research. While my intent is to supplement that mainstream, the effect may appear to dismiss rather than to reconsider accepted tenets. Ample praise and credit for those accomplishments are already available in textbooks. Readers may very well disagree with some of the notions presented in these excursions, but I hope that they will pause long enough to evaluate the scientific basis for any disagreement. For the most part, these excursions remain incomplete and unfulfilled, yet they contain many ideas that are not available elsewhere. Whether these ideas are per ceived as a collection of unproven claims or as a storehouse of fresh opportunities will depend entirely on the attitude of the reader. The excursions do cover a rather wide span of disciplines, and that may lead to an unfocused overall impression. My hope is thereby to attract a broader audience than that of a single discipline, and to expose them to neighboring disciplines. The excursions all do have the common thread of optical science related to astronomy.

The second edition of Electronic Imaging in Astronomy: Detectors and Instrumentation describes the remarkable developments that have taken place in astronomical detectors and instrumentation in recent years – from the invention of the charge-coupled device (CCD) in 1970 to the current era of very large telescopes, such as the Keck 10-meter telescopes in Hawaii with their laser guide-star adaptive optics which rival the image quality of the Hubble Space Telescope. Authored by one of the world’s foremost experts on the design and development of electronic imaging systems for astronomy, this book has been written on several levels to appeal to a broad readership. Mathematical expositions are designed to encourage a wider audience, especially among the growing community of amateur astronomers with small telescopes with CCD cameras. The book can be used at the college level for an introductory course on modern astronomical detectors and instruments, and as a supplement for a practical or laboratory class.