Paper detail

Parabolic Strip Telescope

We present a proposal of a new type of telescopes using a rotating parabolic strip as the primary mirror. It is the most principal modification of the design of telescopes from the times of Galileo and Newton. In order to demonstrate the basic idea, the image of an artificial constellation observed by this kind of telescope was reconstructed using the techniques described in this article. As a working model of this new telescope, we have used an assembly of the primary mirror---a strip of acrylic glass parabolic mirror 40 cm long and 10 cm wid shaped as a parabolic cylinder of focal length 1 m---and an artificial constellation, a set of 5 apertures in a distance of 5 m illuminated from behind. In order to reconstruct the image, we made a series of snaps, each after a rotation of the constellation by 15 degrees. Using Matlab we reconstructed the image of the artificial constellation.