Published Papers
Chapter 3: Classical Optical Alignment Instruments
Fig. 1 A simple collimator with a point source of illumination. An illuminated target in the same plane could serve as the source. Collimators are used as a light source for testing camera lenses on a nodal slide optical bench. The collimator simulates a point source, or in astronomical terms, a star, at infinity. For lens […]
Chapter 2: Three Methods of Alignment
In the Introduction to this series of articles on optical alignment, I said there were three basic methods of alignment. This article presents my thoughts on these methods. My approach may be a bit unconventional, but I hope this way of beginning makes the whole idea of alignment easier to understand. To illustrate the three […]
Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduction to a Series of Articles on Optical Alignment For some time, I have been encouraged to write a book about optical alignment. There have been several half-hearted attempts at beginning, but it never seemed there was enough to talk about and I kept finding new ideas about alignment. I didn’t want the book to […]
A Short History of the CaliBall™ and the Random Ball Test
Back in the late 1990’s NIST had a number of firms that wanted to send their interferometer transmission spheres there for calibration but NIST was not in this sort of calibration business. While I was at NIST consulting for Chris Evans in the Precision Machining Facility we thought of the idea of a self-calibration test […]
Practical Optical Tabletop Alignment
Many research projects begin as tabletop assemblies of optical components to move light from a source through an interaction zone to change the character of the light and on to a detector. The quality of the signal reaching the detector depends on the optical alignment of all the components between the source and detector. The […]
What is an Autostigmatic Microscope (ASM) and the Origin of the Point Source Microscope (PSM)
When most people think of a microscope it is one that works in transmission with the light source on one side of the sample and the microscope objective and eyepiece on the other. An autostigmatic microscope (ASM) works in reflection, just like an autocollimator, so the light source is in the microscope body, and is […]
Recent Posts
- PSM vs. Interferometer: When to Use Each Tool for Optical Alignment
- Simulation for Design For Manufacture (DFM) and tolerancing of realistic optical surface scatter for Mid-spatial Frequencies (MSF) and beyond
- Ritchey-Common Test & Similar Methods Using AI Image Space Phase Retrieval
- Chapter 23 Alignment of Convex Surfaces
- Chapter 22 – Simulation of the alignment of a Cooke triplet using a Bessel beam reference