Dall–Kirkham telescope design

E99267

The Dall–Kirkham telescope design is a type of reflecting telescope that uses an elliptical primary mirror and a spherical secondary mirror to provide good on-axis image quality with relatively simple, easy-to-manufacture optics.


Statements (30)
Predicate Object
instanceOf reflecting telescope design
telescope optical design
canBeModifiedTo corrected Dall–Kirkham design with additional lenses
hasAberrationCharacteristics coma increases off-axis
spherical aberration corrected on-axis
hasAdvantageOver Ritchey–Chrétien telescope design in manufacturing simplicity
hasDesignGoal reduce manufacturing cost
simplify mirror figuring
hasDisadvantageComparedTo Ritchey–Chrétien telescope design in wide-field performance
hasFieldOfView narrow corrected field
hasFocalRatioRange typically long focal ratios
hasHistoricalUse early Cassegrain-type amateur telescopes
hasNameOrigin named after Horace Dall and Allan Kirkham
hasOffAxisPerformance relatively poor off-axis image quality compared to some other designs
hasOpticalConfiguration two-mirror Cassegrain-type system
isCharacterizedBy non-spherical primary mirror figuring only
simple spherical secondary alignment
isComparedTo Ritchey–Chrétien telescope design
isKnownFor ease of manufacture of optical components
relatively simple optics
isOptimizedFor on-axis and small-field observations
isUsedFor high-resolution imaging near the optical axis
planetary observation
isUsedIn amateur astronomical telescopes
small professional telescopes
providesImageQuality good on-axis image quality
usesPrimaryMirrorShape elliptical primary mirror
usesPrimaryMirrorType concave elliptical primary mirror
usesSecondaryMirrorShape spherical secondary mirror
usesSecondaryMirrorType convex spherical secondary mirror

Referenced by (1)
Subject (surface form when different) Predicate
Cassegrain focus
componentOf

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