Abstract

The Rayleigh tolerance on residual spherical aberration is utilized to predict the permitted error in geometrical surface figure eccentricity of the concave ellipsoidal primary mirror of a Dall-Kirkham objective system. The corresponding deviation from complete null when the conventional Foucault knife edge test at the conjugate foci is applied to this mirror is evaluated. This deviation is found to equal the Rayleigh limit of spherical aberration as computed for the particular mirror diameter and knife edge distance used.

This equality is interpreted to mean that a mirror made to any criterion of perfection will function within that criterion in an otherwise perfect objective system even if the test procedure is completely foreign to the final use of the mirror.

The effect of variation of secondary magnification as a means of improving the performance of the complete system is discussed. It is shown that primary surfaces slightly outside tolerance can be made to perform within tolerance by appropriate changes in system EFL whenever this EFL is not critical.

© 1955 Optical Society of America

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