Published Papers

In this document, we will describe a general approach/method to measure optical surfaces in reflection and/or transmission when the incoming beam is not a simple plane wave. Among such tests are the Hindle test for measuring convex surfaces and the Ritchey-Common (RC) test for flat, concave, or convex surfaces. We will explain the concept using […]

This chapter may seem out of sequence, but it tackles a recurring challenge that arguably deserved attention in a previous chapter: aligning convex surfaces. These surfaces appear nearly as often as their easier-to-align concave counterparts, yet they’re frequently overlooked—perhaps because they’re more difficult to visualize and work with. But they do exist, and they can’t […]

For some time, I wanted to simulate the assembly of a Cooke triplet using a Bessel beam as a reference,and assuming the hardware constrained the alignment of each element to either a tilt or decenter as isthe case for many precision lens assemblies. A new optical design software is now available that makesthis modelling relatively […]

Introduction: In Chapters 14 and 15 I explained how a Bessel beam is used to align optics when you have all the necessary degrees of freedom to fully align the optics in tilt, decenter and focus. Many times, you have physical constraints due to the hardware the optics are installed in, so you don’t have […]

Introduction In Chapter 18, I described aligning off-axis parabolas (OAPs) by placing the focus of a test instrument at the OAP’s focus and autoreflecting off a plane mirror. Although I suggested some tips to ease the process, the initial alignment—getting the reflected light back into the test device’s objective—remains challenging. Because I’ve found that using […]

The subject of this Chapter is prompted by several questions over the last couple of months concerning the alignment of tube lenses to high power microscope objectives. In most microscopes these days the objectives are designed as finite to infinite conjugate optics so there is a need for a “tube” lens to focus the object […]