The 100th birthday of the conic constant and Schwarzschild's revolutionary papers in optics

Andrew Rakich

doi:10.1117/12.635041

18 August 2005 The 100th birthday of the conic constant and Schwarzschild's revolutionary papers in optics

Andrew Rakich

Proceedings Volume 5875, Novel Optical Systems Design and Optimization VIII; 587501 (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.635041
Event: Optics and Photonics 2005, 2005, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

In 1905 Karl Schwarzschild published three papers on optics, two of which revolutionized the field of reflecting telescope optics. In his first paper he developed a full theory of the aberrations of reflecting telescopes, generalizing the Eikonal of Bruns to take into account systems with an infinite long conjugate. In the second paper Schwarzschild applied his formulation to a masterful analysis of 2 mirror anastigmatic systems, along the way discovering the so called Ritchey-Chretien aplanat, 18 years Ritchey and Chretien's announcement. Numerous other innovations are given in what must be seen as being among the most important papers on the aberrations of optical systems ever written.

Citation Download Citation

Andrew Rakich "The 100th birthday of the conic constant and Schwarzschild's revolutionary papers in optics", Proc. SPIE 5875, Novel Optical Systems Design and Optimization VIII, 587501 (18 August 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.635041

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