Manufacture Of A Three-Mirror Wide-Field Optical System

An all-reflecting three-mirror infrared optical system has been built by Itek Optical Systems to demonstrate the feasibility of manufacturing such eccentric field designs. The device is a reduced field (1°) version of a three-mirror long wide-field design having a 15.24 cm aperture. Methods for fabricating off-axis aspheric mirrors and aligning eccentric component systems are presented. Results of interferometry to derive image performance characteristics are also given.