Table of Contents

Introduction. Preliminaries: Definitions and Paraxial Optics. Fermat's Principle: An Introduction. Introduction to Aberrations. Fermat's Principle and Aberrations. Reflecting Telescopes. Schmidt Telescopes and Cameras. Catadioptric Telescopes and Cameras. Auxiliary Optics for Telescopes. Diffraction Theory and Aberrations. Transfer Functions: Hubble Space Telescope. Spectrometry: Definitions and Basic Principles. Dispersing Elements and Systems. Grating Aberrations: Concave Grating Spectrometers. Adaptive Optics: An Introduction. Detectors, Signal-to-Noise, and Detection Limits. Large Mirrors and Telescope Arrays. Table of Symbols. Index.

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* Geometrical aberration theory based on Fermat's principle
* Diffraction theory and transfer function approach to near-perfect telescopes
* Thorough discussion of 2-mirror telescopes, including misalignments
* Basic principles of spectrometry; grating and echelle instruments
* Schmidt and other catadioptric telescopes
* Principles of adaptive optics
* Over 220 figures and nearly 90 summary tables