A telescope made with cylinders - I. Some analytical results

Abstract

A novel optical design for a telescope, especially suited for constructing large telescopes at submillimetre to optical wavelengths, was proposed recently. In this paper, we present some analytical results related to such novel optics. We show that, for oblique incidence, the line focus of a parabolic cylinder merely shifts by the same angle in the opposite direction. We also derive the equation defining the shape of the mirror that converts a cylindrical wavefront to a spherical wavefront.