Optical system of light gathering using orthogonal compressions to form large diameter, shallow depth telescopes

摘要

Optical system for a telescope having independent optical arms adapted to collect light rays over a first cross sectional area and compress it into a second cross sectional area less than the first cross sectional area. Orthogonal mirror pairs of parabolic trough mirrors compress light in first one dimension and then the other dimension and feed the light into a focusing smaller telescope structure. The gathered light is kept parallel and its wavefront is kept in phase, allowing the telescope to have the diffraction limit of the collective aperture. The optical arms are independently adjustable to point the system toward different objects of interest and track them.