Optical Design of the LSST Camera

摘要

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) uses a novel, three-mirror, modified Paul-Baker design, with an 8.4-meter primary mirror, a 3.4-m secondary, and a 5.0-m tertiary feeding a camera system that includes a set of broad-bandfilters and refractive corrector lenses to produce a flat focal plane with a field of view of 9.6 square degrees. Opticaldesign of the camera lenses and filters is integrated with optical design of telescope mirrors to optimize performance,resulting in excellent image quality over the entire field from ultra-violet to near infra-red wavelengths. The LSSTcamera optics design consists of three refractive lenses with clear aperture diameters of 1.55 m, 1.10 m and 0.69 m andsix interchangeable, broad-band, filters with clear aperture diameters of 0.75 m. We describe the methodology forfabricating, coating, mounting and testing these lenses and filters, and we present the results of detailed toleranceanalyses, demonstrating that the camera optics will perform to the specifications required to meet their performancegoals.