Given that most here purchase their equipment and assemble an imaging system from the purchased components. I thought it might be interesting to present an alternate solution to the quest for more photons per pixel.
I have always had an interest in optical systems and over the years I have made a lot of them, including a few telescopes! This discussion will center on the design and construction of a flat field Schmidt Astrograph of 10" (250mm) aperture and 24" (610mm) focal length. Oh, thats F/2.4. I have made a nunber of Schmidts in the past including 12" camera for a friend, back in the early 70's film days, 8" folded flat field astrograph whose images have been presented here, Schmidt cassegrains, and Wright Schmidts. So this isn't my first.
I designed a lot of instruments for the STL11000m camera and put a couple into service. This camera was state of the art in its day, but didn't lend itself to prime focus imaging due to its irregular foot print. The new generation of CMOS cameras are not only higher performance but with a smaller footprint that faciltates use at prime focus.
If there is sufficient interest and feedback from the AB-community, I'll continue to post progress.
With that in mind please find the attached pdf :
10F2.4AstrographAB.pdf
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