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.

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.

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.

A handy and comprehensive reference to the 300 most interesting celestial objects. This book provides a tour through the galaxy, from its solar core to its outer limits, with all the highlights and the very latest data about the universe. Convenient data sidebars with each entry provide facts and figures on every object- including mass, magnitude, density, radius, rotation period, and surface and core temperatures. An annotated cross-section of the object enhances this information, and a full-page photograph brings the object to life. Additional spreads bring together and explain related objects or phenomena. For example, the corresponding pages for the sun include solar power, sunspots and solar flares. Others examples include: *Mercury: Mercury's surface *The asteroid belt: Eros 433 *Jupiter's moons: 10, Europa, Callista *Outer belts and comets: Halley's comet; Deep Impact *Space telescopes: International Space Station. 300 Astronomical Objects is a handy reference for the amateur astronomer. AUTHOR: Jamie Wilkins has a degree in astrophysics from Cambridge University. Robert Dunn has a degree in natural sciences, specializing in physics, from Cambridge University, where he is a researcher at the Institute of Astronomy. 300 + colour illustrations

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.

In Measuring Shadows, Raz Chen-Morris demonstrates that a close study of Kepler’s Optics is essential to understanding his astronomical work and his scientific epistemology. He explores Kepler’s radical break from scientific and epistemological traditions and shows how the seventeenth-century astronomer posited new ways to view scientific truth and knowledge. Chen-Morris reveals how Kepler’s ideas about the formation of images on the retina and the geometrics of the camera obscura, as well as his astronomical observations, advanced the argument that physical reality could only be described through artificially produced shadows, reflections, and refractions. Breaking from medieval and Renaissance traditions that insisted upon direct sensory perception, Kepler advocated for instruments as mediators between the eye and physical reality, and for mathematical language to describe motion. It was only through this kind of knowledge, he argued, that observation could produce certainty about the heavens. Not only was this conception of visibility crucial to advancing the early modern understanding of vision and the retina, but it affected how people during that period approached and understood the world around them.

A concise, organised reference that explains the functions and configurations of astronomical instrumentation. It provides an overview of aspects of astronomical instrumentation from principles of general optics and optical design to optical manufacturing and systems engineering.