STRUCTURE OF THE MODERN SCHIEFSPIEGLER - I - PSEUDO AXIS, MAGNIFICATION, AND DISTORTION

The modern schiefspiegler is an optical system consisting of two prola te spheroid mirrors coupled by conjoining the distal focus of the firs t spheroid with the proximal focus of the second. A ray through the pr oximal focus of the first spheroid must, after reflection, pass throug h the common focus and then, after a second reflection, through the di stal focus of the second spheroid. The pseudo axis is-such a ray with the property that all other meridional rays are symmetric about it. Th e entrance and the exit pupils are perpendicular to the pseudo axis an d are located, respectively, at the first proximal focus and the secon d distal focus. Therefore rays through the foci are chief rays. It is shown that all chief rays are symmetric with respect to the pseudo axi s and that, therefore, magnification is uniform for all object points. An expression for magnification is obtained that leads to a distortio n function that depends only on magnification. (C) 1998 Optical Societ y of America.