Hard X-ray imaging with microchannel plate optics

We investigate, by ray-trace simulation, two hard X-ray telescopes based on microchannel plate (MCP) optics. The first is the, by now well known, lobs ter-eye geometry, while the second is a novel design. The second design use s a pair of MCPs with square channels packed in a radial fashion and repres ents a conical approximation to the Welter type I configuration. We show th at such telescopes can provide X-ray imaging at energies up to 100 keV. Eff ective area may be scaled arbitrarily by co-aligning many MCP optics. As an example, we calculate that 50 parallel Welter I units each of 60 mm diamet er and 5 m focal length yield a sensitivity of 1 milli Crab at 45 keV in a 10(5) second integration.