[ATM] FOV by design: An iterative process?

[Dominic-Luc Webb <dlwebb@canit.se>]

I have tinkered with numbers for some time, plugging numbers
like ROC and radius into software, or direct trigonometry
calculations, etc. The criteria we most frequently have used
to constrain designs are things like magnification and
sometimes magnitude. But what about constraining field of
view (FOV)?

Most of us built our first scopes based on somewhat arbitrary
things like F/6 gives best compromise between planetary and
deep sky viewing. Quite acceptable, but I do wonder if anyone
on the list here started a design with a fixed FOV (in my case
30 degrees of sky) and designed the rest of the scope from
this. Reading how the pros have built scopes, it is clear they
are rather often interested in a design that covers a very
specific FOV. Having used OsloLT and others, I am not real sure
how to fix FOV and optimize a design around it, but it appears
to be an iterative process. In my case, there is no eyepiece,
just a camera, although there can be field flattening optics, etc.
I guess it is also clear I am talking about Schmidt camera type
designs. I am curious how others attack this numerically.

Dominic-Luc Webb

_______________________________________________
ATM mailing list http://www.atmlist.net/