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Astronomical optics
ICARUS 84, 275 (1990)
BOOK REVIEW Astronomical Optics. By Daniel J. Schroeder. Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 1987 352 pp., $45.00
Astronomical Optics, by Daniel J Schroeder (Academic Press, 1987), is a comprehenswe presentation of the fundamental pnnciples of optical design and engineering for astronomical remote sensing instruments. The book's primary emphasis is on the image quality across a field-of-view and its brightness. Using the contents of this book a research scientist, who is wellversed and appreciates technical matters, will be able to design, specify, and budd his own laboratory optical instruments. In addition, knowledge of the contents of this book will give the research scientist background and skills to communicate his ideas efficiently to the professional optical designer and system engineer. Dan Schroeder's approach to the subject is to develop those optics design and engineering concepts to a depth needed to understand a parhcular aspect of astronomical optics and then follow immediately with a well-known telescope instrument system. For example, the first six chapters present Fermat's principle, provide an introduction to a ray theory of aberrations, and discuss reflecting telescope geometries; and then, in the next three chapters, the author applies this classical optical design theory to Schmldt telescopes, Catadloptric telescopes, and optical systems to correct residual aberrations in telescope systems (e.g., field lenses and prime focus correctors) Chapter 10 provldes a review of diffraction theory and aberrations to prepare the reader for a presentation of the optical transfer function in Chapter 11 The author uses his extensive personal experience with the Hubble Space Telescope optical system to discuss the optical transfer function. The next four chapters give the reader" the definitions and basic principles of spectrometer design, an essay on &spersmg elements and systems, and a presentation of concave and plane diffraction grating instruments and their aberrations. The first 15 chapters of this book are devoted to location, size, quality, and spectral content of an image Chapter 16 provides a brief discussion of optical system noise and detection limits This fairly brief discussion is excellent and uses examples from actual astronomical instruments. The final chapter is a very brief (11 pages) and well written discussion of a topic of current interest to the astronomical telescope design community multiple aperture telescopes. A more descriptive title for this book is probably: optical engineering with applications to astronomy. This book ~s not a textbook m astronomical optics. There are no homework problems to guide the student and the text is not written m such a manner to optimize
a problem solving approach characteristic of engineermg texts. Equations are derived and the author applies them in his own examples to show their utility. Undergraduate students, unless unusually strongly motivated, will find the book difficult The book will find an audience among graduate students of astronomy, physics, and engineering who are faced with the task of designing and buildang a remote sensing instrument to record their dissertation data. Another audience are those professional physicists and astronomers who are faced with the task of designing and building a remote sensing instrument to record data for scientific interpretatlon At the end of each chapter the author gives a brief list of references and a bibliography Most of the references are to classical work. The most recent date appears to be 1985' two years before publication. Most of the two or three references at the end of each chapter are to material published in the 1960s. The two chapters on plane and concave diffraction gratings include no references to papers more recent than 1976, leaving out much of the modern hologram optical element developments. Optical sciences and engineering IS a very rapidly evolving subject with new capabilities for instruments and new requirements for optical Instrumentation developing weekly Most of the material in Astronomical Optics IS of a fundamental nature and will not change with time This reviewer would have preferred to see a larger bibhography/reference list containing more recent material A few specific comments: On page 11 it is not clear that the Lagrange lnvarlant (the symbol H) is an lnvanant of the optical system. H is a constant. Not only is it mvanant, but the brightness of the image depends on the value of H. This is discussed in the brief onepage presentation of flux, luminosity, and etendu, in Chapter 13, but is not presented in Chapter 16, under system noise and detection hmlts The book has 341 pages of text, followed by a 10page Index It is well written and the typesetting is excellent. No significant typographical errors are evident. I highly recommend this book for the personal hbrary of scientists and engineers who have a serious interest in the opUcal system engmeenng of remote sensor systems. J. B. BRECKINRIDGE
Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California 91109
275 0019-1035/90 $3.00 Copyright© 1990by AcademicPress, lnc All rightsof reproductionin any formreserved
BOOK REVIEW Astronomical Optics. By Daniel J. Schroeder. Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 1987 352 pp., $45.00
Astronomical Optics, by Daniel J Schroeder (Academic Press, 1987), is a comprehenswe presentation of the fundamental pnnciples of optical design and engineering for astronomical remote sensing instruments. The book's primary emphasis is on the image quality across a field-of-view and its brightness. Using the contents of this book a research scientist, who is wellversed and appreciates technical matters, will be able to design, specify, and budd his own laboratory optical instruments. In addition, knowledge of the contents of this book will give the research scientist background and skills to communicate his ideas efficiently to the professional optical designer and system engineer. Dan Schroeder's approach to the subject is to develop those optics design and engineering concepts to a depth needed to understand a parhcular aspect of astronomical optics and then follow immediately with a well-known telescope instrument system. For example, the first six chapters present Fermat's principle, provide an introduction to a ray theory of aberrations, and discuss reflecting telescope geometries; and then, in the next three chapters, the author applies this classical optical design theory to Schmldt telescopes, Catadloptric telescopes, and optical systems to correct residual aberrations in telescope systems (e.g., field lenses and prime focus correctors) Chapter 10 provldes a review of diffraction theory and aberrations to prepare the reader for a presentation of the optical transfer function in Chapter 11 The author uses his extensive personal experience with the Hubble Space Telescope optical system to discuss the optical transfer function. The next four chapters give the reader" the definitions and basic principles of spectrometer design, an essay on &spersmg elements and systems, and a presentation of concave and plane diffraction grating instruments and their aberrations. The first 15 chapters of this book are devoted to location, size, quality, and spectral content of an image Chapter 16 provides a brief discussion of optical system noise and detection limits This fairly brief discussion is excellent and uses examples from actual astronomical instruments. The final chapter is a very brief (11 pages) and well written discussion of a topic of current interest to the astronomical telescope design community multiple aperture telescopes. A more descriptive title for this book is probably: optical engineering with applications to astronomy. This book ~s not a textbook m astronomical optics. There are no homework problems to guide the student and the text is not written m such a manner to optimize
a problem solving approach characteristic of engineermg texts. Equations are derived and the author applies them in his own examples to show their utility. Undergraduate students, unless unusually strongly motivated, will find the book difficult The book will find an audience among graduate students of astronomy, physics, and engineering who are faced with the task of designing and buildang a remote sensing instrument to record their dissertation data. Another audience are those professional physicists and astronomers who are faced with the task of designing and building a remote sensing instrument to record data for scientific interpretatlon At the end of each chapter the author gives a brief list of references and a bibliography Most of the references are to classical work. The most recent date appears to be 1985' two years before publication. Most of the two or three references at the end of each chapter are to material published in the 1960s. The two chapters on plane and concave diffraction gratings include no references to papers more recent than 1976, leaving out much of the modern hologram optical element developments. Optical sciences and engineering IS a very rapidly evolving subject with new capabilities for instruments and new requirements for optical Instrumentation developing weekly Most of the material in Astronomical Optics IS of a fundamental nature and will not change with time This reviewer would have preferred to see a larger bibhography/reference list containing more recent material A few specific comments: On page 11 it is not clear that the Lagrange lnvarlant (the symbol H) is an lnvanant of the optical system. H is a constant. Not only is it mvanant, but the brightness of the image depends on the value of H. This is discussed in the brief onepage presentation of flux, luminosity, and etendu, in Chapter 13, but is not presented in Chapter 16, under system noise and detection hmlts The book has 341 pages of text, followed by a 10page Index It is well written and the typesetting is excellent. No significant typographical errors are evident. I highly recommend this book for the personal hbrary of scientists and engineers who have a serious interest in the opUcal system engmeenng of remote sensor systems. J. B. BRECKINRIDGE
Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California 91109
275 0019-1035/90 $3.00 Copyright© 1990by AcademicPress, lnc All rightsof reproductionin any formreserved