Simple system of aberration correction for very large spherical primary mirrors

Several large telescopes are now being proposed that would benefit from the cost reduction due to the use of spherical primary mirror. However, structural cost constraints require compact formats that tend to impose very high speeds, e.g. f/1.5, which renders difficult the correction of the resulting very large spherical aberration. A technique is described here in which a spherical concentric Cassegrain-like primary-secondary combination is followed by a simple catadioptric focal modifier. The spherical primary is 9m diameter, f/1.5, and the final focus is f/5 with a sub-arcsecond resolution over a 5 arcminute angular field for a passband of 480-850nm. Primary- secondary separation is only 11m and central obscuration is only 11% of pupil area. The two relatively small corrector components provide the functions of concentric meniscus and zonal corrector plate and are made from the same single glass- BK7 is the example given, but silica or any other preferred glass is possible. The relatively small zonal corrector is the only aspheric surface in the entire system. A related system is described elsewhere in which a 30 arcminute angular field can be achieved with a similar resolution, but with more complex glass requirements. However, supply of such exotic glasses may be difficult in large diameters, and the system presented here may find a place in some specialized applications.