The Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope

As mentioned several times in previous posts, one of the effects of the 24th chromosome was to place a Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope within the Vuduri eye. In fact, in Rome's Revolution, the first thing Rei noticed about Rome was that her eyes glowed due to the tapetum behind her retinas. The first time the Maksutov-Cassegrain Reflector was mentioned was in context of Silas Hiram's telescope on what had been called New Earth and now is referred to as Helome. Silas brought the telescope to Alpha Centauri aboard the Ark I and he used it to visualize Earth. He was the first person to notice that Alnilam had disappeared which caused a cascade of events leading up to the discovery of the Stareaters.

I figured it was time to give you the optical properties of such a telescope. The way a Maksutov-Cassegrain reflector works is that light comes through the transparent front lens, is focused on to the back mirror (or in the case of the Vuduri, their tapetum) which refocuses the light onto the prism and onto the eyepiece. The effect of all of this is that the focal length of the telescope is effectively three times that of a traditional telescope for the same length. It makes for a very compact, yet powerful, design.

From Wikipedia:
The Maksutov–Cassegrain is a variation of the Maksutov telescope named after the Soviet/Russian optician and astronomer Dmitri Dmitrievich Maksutov. It starts with an optically transparent corrector lens that is a section of a hollow sphere. It has a spherical primary mirror, and a spherical secondary that in this application is usually a mirrored section of the corrector lens.

Here is an image of the optical path (thank you Wikipedia):

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I actually own a Meade ETX-90 telescope which is where I got the idea for the Vuduri eyes. The telescope is great. It is compact and offers literally the same seeing power as a traditional telescope three times the length.