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In Chapter 12, I commented again on classical optical instruments since there was interest in an earlier discussion. This got me thinking about what had changed in optical technology since the period ending about 1950 when there was a rather canonical set of classical optical metrology tools. There has been a huge technological change since […]

There was more interest in Chapter 3 about the classical instruments used for optical alignment than any other chapter to date, and I didn’t have a chance to say all I wanted to, so I will continue the discussion in this Chapter to emphasize how changes in technology have changed the design of these instruments. […]

Measuring the quality of alignment of an assembled compound lens is often necessary. This raises the question of what
axis to use as a reference axis for this measurement. We suggest that the reference axis should be the optical axis of the
assembled system and that this axis is unique for each assembly.

As I said in the first chapter, I hope to make these articles into a book on alignment after significant editing to organize the material coherently. In that spirit, and before I forget, let me discuss some aspects of alignment and precision engineering that belong in a Preface or Introduction to the book rather than […]