telescope techniques

A Modified Gregorian Telescope

Heres a unique telescope design for beginners as well as advanced amateurs.

By Robert J. Magee

inally! A reflecting telescope

with an aperture of 8 to 10 inches, small central obstruction, and
focal length of 96 inches that
doesnt require a stepladder to reach the
eyepiece. Optically it is a folded Gregorian
reflector with a paraboloidal primary mirror and a concave ellipsoidal secondary. I
see this design as especially suited to CCD
imaging, but it makes a high-performance
visual instrument as well. It has a diffraction-limited field of view of a little more
than 12 across, so the entire Moon is
crisply imaged at once.
What led me to this design was a comment by Roger Sinnott, who said that it
was unfortunate a doublet-lens refractor
could not take advantage of the wide
spectral response of todays CCD detectors. Color correction for a pair of optical
crown and flint glasses is limited to two
specific wavelengths, usually chosen to lie
in the red and blue. But a CCD array,
consisting of silicon photosensors, has a
much wider spectral range that extends
from blue into the near-infrared. An allreflective, purely achromatic system
seems to be ideal for CCD work.
In my prototype, pictured here, incoming light reflects off an 8-inch f/6 primary
and comes to focus near a small diagonal
prism. There the rays are redirected 90
to an 8-inch f/4 concave ellipsoid. The
primarys focus coincides with one focus
of the ellipsoid, and after reflection the
rays reconverge at the second focus, where
the eyepiece is located. The ellipsoid pro-

Above: Robert Magee with his homemade 8inch f/12 Gregorian reflector. The telescope
uses a paraboloidal primary mirror and an ellipsoidal secondary mirror. Right: Despite its
bulky size, the telescope is easy to assemble
and take apart. Note the cart wheels attached
to its triangular base and altitude yoke for
transporting the components. All photographs
in this article are by Chuck Baker.

112

January 1998 Sky & Telescope

1997 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

vides a twofold gain in effective focal

length, and it also allows the eyepiece to
be within easy reach of the observer.
Because of the crisscross layout this
telescope is difficult to mount equatorially.
However, on an altazimuth mount it can
offer comfortable viewing. The eyepiece
height is just about right for observers
standing up or seated on a high stool.
Since the telescope contains at least
three mirror surfaces, high-efficiency aluminum coatings are essential. The final
image is right-side up but reversed from
left to right. This poses no problem for
CCD imaging, as the pixels can be manipulated during image processing. For visual observing you could add a redirection
mirror 10 to 12 inches from the eyepiece
to correct the image orientation.
Telescope Construction
The telescope body and altitude yoke are
made chiefly of 14-inch plywood. I added
numerous reinforcing ribs to stiffen all the
components and made circular cutouts on
the yokes sides to lighten it. The body
turns about the horizontal altitude axis on
a pair of trunnions, 178 inches in diameter
at the secondary-mirror end and 5 inches
at the eyepiece end. They rest on V-shaped
notches at the ends of the yoke arms. I
also added a sunshade with counterweights at the tubes aperture end to help
balance it.
The yoke rests on a circular 34-inch plywood base 4412 inches in diameter. This
base, in turn, revolves around the vertical
azimuth axis on heavy-duty ball bearings
that are mounted on another sheet of 34inch plywood. The whole structure is
supported by a triangular framework of
2-by-4 studs equipped with three adjustable feet and a bubble level for setting
the telescope evenly on the ground.
The Optics
As mentioned earlier, the telescope shown
in this article has 8-inch-diameter primary
and secondary mirrors. Their specifications are listed in the table on page 114.

If the eyepiece were mounted to look straight through the trunnion, the telescope would give
erect but mirror-reversed images. Magee added a final elbow and redirection mirror, shown here,
to make the image right reading.The mirror assembly pivots to suit the observers eye level.

But the design can also be made with 10inch mirrors, if all other dimensions and
curves are kept the same. In either case
the equivalent focal length is 96 inches.
The 8- and 10-inch versions have essentially the same field performance as f/12
and f/9.6 Newtonians, respectively.
My primary is a ready-made f/6 paraboloid that I purchased from Newport
Glass Works, Ltd. (1631 Monrovia Ave.,
Costa Mesa, CA 92627). Tests showed it
to have an excellent figure, so I spent several months making an ellipsoidal secondary of similar optical quality. (Such a
mirror is not available commercially except on special order.)
For this secondary I started with an 8inch-diameter Pyrex blank. After using
#80 grit to achieve the desired radius of
curvature (64 inches), I followed up with
the usual sequence of finer abrasives
(120, 220, 320, 400, 600, and 800). Then
I switched to sapphire abrasives in the 5-,
3-, and 0.3-micron sizes. These can be
obtained from Alpha Supply Co. (P.O.

1997 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

Box 2133, Bremerton, WA 98310) or

Willmann-Bell, Inc. (P.O. Box 35025,
Richmond, VA 23235). I also added a half
teaspoon of liquid soap to a cup of water
as a wetting agent. With each abrasive
size, six grinding sessions of about five
minutes each sufficed to bring the surface
to a uniform finish, as viewed under a
microscope.
After carefully cleaning the mirror and
tool, I melted about a pound of pitch and
poured it on the tool to make a 58-inchthick polishing lap. While the pitch was
still warm and reasonably firm, I placed
the mirror blank next to it on the table,
face up, and coated the fine-ground surface lightly with dilute liquid soap. I also
applied a clean piece of polyvinyl food
wrap to the blank to keep the lap from
sticking and centered an 8-inch-diameter
piece of honeycomb foundation (HCF)
on top. Next I inverted the tool and lowered it, pitch side down, onto the HCF.
The whole setup was then warmed on an
electric heating pad set on high for two
hours. I checked the progress by picking
up and looking through the back of the
mirror every so often to see if the lap had
sagged completely in the center and that
the HCF was not melting. Once the lap
had sagged, I let it cool before charging it
with rouge and soapy water.
HCF polishes more rapidly than pitch
alone, but it is somewhat delicate to the
touch. When moving the lap I avoided
placing my fingers on the surface as this
Sky & Telescope January 1998

113

telescope techniques

Starlight
47.5"

96"

Telescope, page 84. Figuring and testing

went smoothly. If you inadvertently overcorrect, it is easy to polish away some of
the high intermediate zone.

Diagonal prism
Optional
redirection
mirror

Ellipsoidal
secondary
mirror

Final
focus

The Diagonal Mirror (Prism)

Since the diagonal mirror lies in the path
of incoming starlight as well as in the light
cone coming from the primary and secondary mirrors, it is important to keep its
size to a minimum. In my system the
central obstruction is no larger than in a
Newtonian of similar focal ratio.
The diagonals size determines the field
of view. Given the focal length of the primary mirror, 48 inches, a diagonal measuring about 12 by 34 inch provides a field of
view of 12. However, the diagonal also obscures some of the converging rays from
the secondary mirror. This light cone is 4
inches in diameter (for an 8-inch mirror)
as it passes the diagonal, so the obstruction
by the diagonal itself amounts to only
about 12 percent of the beam diameter or
1.6 percent of its area. The diagonal supports will obstruct another 3 or 4 percent
of the area.
You can use either a first-surface flat
mirror or the hypotenuse of a prism for
the diagonal. Remember: the goal is to
obscure no more of the aperture than is
absolutely necessary, since both the diagonal and its mounting supports are being
viewed from two directions. A prism, if
employed, should be used as a first-surface mirror with the hypotenuse aluminized. No light should pass through
the prism glass, as its transmission would
limit the spectral response. The telescope
should be all-reflective except for the
viewing eyepiece.
Diagonal stability is also important. My
prism is cemented to a U-shaped cutout,
which is connected to a vertical post (a
3
16-inch threaded rod) anchored at either
end with machine-screw nuts. The post
itself can be rotated and moved up and
down and sideways for collimating (aligning) the optics.

Alternate
final focus
48.5"

Optical layout for Magees design.

The diagonal is placed a half inch
beyond the primary mirrors focal
plane so any imperfections on
the diagonals surface (dust or
scratches) will be out of focus in
the final image.

would depress the HCF hexagons and result in an uneven polish. HCF can be replaced fairly easily by scraping it off the
lap with a small wood chisel. Usually this
does not disturb the gross curvature of
the lap, so a new layer of HCF can be applied after the chips of pitch have been
brushed away. Polishing took about 912
hours, done in approximately half-hour
sessions every evening.
Figu
ring the Ellipsoid
The concave ellipsoid in this design differs from a sphere by only a fraction of a
wavelength near the rim and center. In
fact, one way to figure this mirror would
be to start by making a good sphere whose
radius of curvature matched the ellipsoid
at some intermediate zone. For the 8-inch,
a good matching sphere radius is 64.007
inches. It is clear that the ellipsoidal surface is not very far from a sphere, and even
if the surface were left spherical the wave-

Robert Magees
Modified Gregorian
Reflector
Paraboloidal
primary mirror

front error would only equal Rayleighs

limit of 14 wave.
For my telescope, I didnt bother producing a spherical surface first but went
directly for the desired curve. The nice
thing about the geometry of an ellipsoid
is that you can null-test it with a Foucault
knife-edge device, just as if figuring a
sphere at its center of curvature. The only
difference in the setup is that the light
source should be placed at the focus nearer the mirror and the knife edge at the
farther one. The foci for the ellipsoid of
this design are 48 and 96 inches from the
mirror, respectively.
A standard plastic optical fiber 0.010
to 0.030 inch in diameter makes a good
point source of light. If youre using an incandescent lamp for illumination, a portion of its tungsten coil should be imaged
on one end of the fiber with a magnifying
glass. Or, with a light-emitting diode
(LED) you could image its small active
area onto the optical fiber.
Foucault testing requires a
room of reasonable size
and still air, so a basement
location is ideal.
I finished this mirror
using a subdiameter lap on
a potters wheel, described
in the July 1995 Sky &

Specifications of the Magee Reflector

(All dimensions are in inches)

The telescopes body and mount weigh about 235 pounds and
feature an all-wood construction. Here the bodys top cover
and sunshade were removed to show the interior. Painted flat
black, internal baffles give the structure rigidity and cut down
stray light. The box in the center contains the diagonal.
114

January 1998 Sky & Telescope

Component
Primary mirror
Diagonal
Secondary mirror
Redirection mirror

Diameter
8 or 10
0.5 by 0.75
8 or 10
2.75 by 4

Radius of Curvature
96.0

64.0

Distance from
Previous Component

48.5
47.5
86

The primary mirror is an off-the-shelf paraboloid of 48-inch focal length. The concave secondary
mirror is nearly spherical with a 32-inch focal length; for best performance it should be figured as a
weak ellipsoid (eccentricity 0.333).

1997 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

Both primary and secondary mirrors rest on

1
4-inch-thick foam-rubber pads. Each mirror
support has three adjustment screws in the
back for collimating (aligning) the optics.

Collimation
My modified Gregorian design is quite
forgiving when it comes to collimation.
However, since the sharp field of view is so
wide (12), it is easy to think that the optics
are collimated when they really are not.
To collimate the telescope, place it on a
level table or workbench. The process is
relatively simple and straightforward:
1. Adjust the diagonal so it is centered
as accurately as possible with respect to
the telescopes entrance aperture.
2. As you look down the aperture from
5 to 6 feet away, have a friend adjust the
primary mirror until the diagonals reflection appears centered on the mirror.
3. With the ellipsoidal mirror out of the
way, remove the 178-inch trunnion on the
end piece of the telescope arm and look
through the hole. Rotate and tilt the diagonal until the reflection of the primary
mirror appears centered in the diagonal.
4. Put back the ellipsoid. As you look
through the open eyepiece-end trunnion,
have your friend adjust the ellipsoidal
mirror until the diagonals reflection lies
exactly in its center. The two big mirrors
should now appear superimposed and
concentric. Collimation is within tolerance when errors large enough to be seen
by the unaided eye have been corrected.
I spent about $500 and a year of parttime work on this project, but the views
Ive gotten make it worth all the effort.
For more details, you can reach me at 27
Southfield Rd., Concord, MA 01742.

Advertisement

Author Robert Magee has also designed and

built a 6-inch all-spherical Newtonian reflector and a 3.4-inch folded refractor, which were
featured in this magazine in June 1994 (page
90) and July 1995 (page 81), respectively.
1997 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

Sky & Telescope January 1998

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