telescope techniques
New Twist on Tilted-Mirror Telescopes
How the image quality of a 6-inch refractor can be yours for a fraction of the cost.
B
ecause the laws of reflec-
tion are colorblind, telescopes
with reflective optics are always
free of chromatic aberration;
they bring light to one focus regardless of
its color. Yet the images in most reflectors
are compromised in other ways, since the
entering light is scattered by the second-
ary mirror and any support vanes that
may be present. However, if the mirrors
are tilted, reflecting telescopes can be
built that lack central obstructions, and
such instruments offer the potential for
excellent high-contrast performance.
These TCT (tilted-component tele-
scope) arrangements generally require two
Manageable weight and an accessible eyepiece position are two hallmarks of NEWTRYAD,
John Francis’s tilted-component reflector. S&T photographs by Janel Cole.
128 July 1999 Sky & Telescope
or more mirrors, and they often suffer
from trade-offs involving the mirror tilts
and spacings. In some instances as many
as five reflections are required to make the
final image plane accessible to an eyepiece
or camera. Furthermore, that plane is often
tilted with respect to the optical axis, and
unless the eyepiece includes this tilt there
will be an out-of-focus condition at the
top and bottom of the image. In any
event, the tilt is tolerable only if less than
10°. Nevertheless, TCTs can be configured
to yield “diffraction limited” images —
the sharpest that can be theoretically
achieved by a given telescope aperture —
across wide fields of view.
©1999 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
By John Francis
I have recently designed and built a rel-
atively low-cost, compact, and fairly easy-
to-make TCT. Since its design is based on
mirrors that have roughly the same cur-
vature, the task of mirror making is
somewhat simplified. Yet NEWTRYAD
(one of my “new try” designs) is a good
performer: it minimizes focal-plane tilt
and yields very clean star images, images
that lie within the diffraction limit of its
6-inch aperture. It’s also an enjoyable in-
strument to use: the eyepiece is aimed
along the declination axis, making for
convenient viewing, and most observing
can be accomplished while seated. I be-
lieve my design offers an option to those
wanting high performance without the
higher cost and longer tube length asso-
ciated with refractors. The only catch is
that you can’t go out and buy one: this is
a do-it-yourself project.
Deriving the Design
In 1969 Richard Buchroeder presented a
TCT design that used three spherical mir-
rors, two concave, one convex (S &T: De-
cember 1969, page 418). The mirrors had
the same focal length, easing construction.
Access to the image plane was easily
gained in Buchroeder’s design but at the
expense of a relatively large focal-plane
tilt. He eventually offered an improved
scheme that reduced the tilt to 9°, but it
required a very shallow curve on the third
mirror. Builders of this f/20 instrument
offer glowing reports on its performance.
Later, José Sasian produced a two-mir-
ror unobstructed Newtonian that he in-
troduced to the readers of Sky & Tele-
scope in the March 1991 issue (page 320).
This instrument had a focal-plane tilt of
less than 8° but required a toroidal
(“potato chip”) figure on the secondary.
Although readily produced by advanced
amateurs, the toroidal surface was a bit
intimidating for me.
Next, enter David Stevick. While fine-
tuning his personal TCT ray-trace pro-
 21.81"
12.15"

Secondary Folding flat Tilted

mirror mirror focal
plane

1.39"

6.42"
Optical
axis

Primary
mirror
40.85"

Above: This view of NEWTRYAD’s optical “tube” shows all but one of the tele-
scope’s mirrors (the tertiary is at the other end of the hollow polar shaft).
Wooden clips hold the primary and secondary mirrors in place (inset), while

SOURCE: JOHN FRANCIS

the folding flat rests in a typical Newtonian diagonal mount. Tertiary
mirror

Right: By folding its light path and sending it down the polar axis, John
Francis has created a compact unobstructed reflector. Dimensions shown
here are “as built” and in practice can vary by a quarter inch without ad-
versely affecting performance.

gram he developed an outstanding design
now known as the Stevick-Paul tele-
scope. It gave the most remarkable ray-
trace* results I had ever seen (ATM Jour-
nal 3, spring/summer 1993). Stevick’s
SPOTPLOT program is available for free
at http://bhs.broo.k12.wv.us/homepage/
alumni/dstevick/weird.htm, where you
will also find Sasian’s outstanding TCT
design software.
*Ray tracing is the process of mathematically fol-
lowing light as it passes through a hypothetical
optical device.
I was so impressed with the Stevick-
Paul design that I decided to build a 6-
inch unit. However, I chose to gain access
to the image plane in a different way. The
result was an arrangement of mirrors
that became the genesis of NEWTRYAD.
I placed a flat mirror between the sec-
ondary and tertiary mirrors and wound
up with a tube that projected from the
bottom of the optics box and contained
the tertiary. I liked this alternate arrange-
ment because the tube containing the ter-
tiary could also be used as the declination
shaft for an equatorial mount. A side
benefit of the flat is that images are ori-
ented “correctly,” as they are in a New-
tonian, and not mirror-reversed.
Next, I began to play around with
other changes to see if I could reduce the
focal-plane tilt and maybe further com-
press the package. To do this I wandered
from the Stevick-Paul parameters and
changed spacings, tilts, and mirror cur-
vatures while holding the general shape
of this “new try” approach. Using Ste-
vick’s program, I found my new design
after much grunt work and many false
starts. Largely by trial and error, I de-
duced empirical equations relating the
mirrors’ focal lengths, tilts, and separa-
tions. Although this may sound tedious,
the process went very quickly owing to
the friendly nature of SPOTPLOT.
(Those interested in developing their
own designs can contact me for details.)
The mirrors in my TCT can have spher-
ical surfaces with no appreciable loss of
performance. But an ellipsoidal figure on

Far left: The author’s 11-year-old son, Ian,

shows how NEWTRYAD is focused by turning
a knob, lifting or lowering a spring-loaded
lever arm (left) that holds 11⁄4 -inch eyepieces.
The eyepiece is gently tilted to match its
focal plane with that of the telescope.

©1999 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Sky & Telescope July 1999 129
 Try this with a 6-inch f/15 refractor! As author John Francis demonstrates here, NEWTRYAD can
telescope techniques
be easily carried out in three parts. Top left: The equatorial mount comes out first. Center: The
optical “box” then joins it, with the polar shaft being placed into its cradle. Bottom: The coun-
terweight is then added to balance the assembly.

the primary will reduce the already mod-
est spherical aberration to nearly zero.
Once the mirror configuration was
known, I had a packaging problem to
solve.
Using computer-aided-design (CAD)
software, I came up with a layout that
provides unobstructed clearance across a
1
⁄2° field of view. This same layout served
as the “blueprint” for assembling the op-
tical components.
Mirror Making and More
The materials required to construct
NEWTRYAD include three 6-inch Pyrex
mirror blanks, a piece of 6-inch-diame-
ter aluminum irrigation pipe, 1⁄4-inch
tempered Masonite for the optics box,
and lumber to make the beams and the
tube clamp.
If an f/10 to f/13 primary mirror is al-
ready available, a matching pair of addi-
tional mirrors (one concave, one convex)
can yield a design similar to NEWTRYAD.
Even slightly varying focal lengths can
produce good results. This is exactly what
I did, since I had a number of mirrors on
hand when I started this project. The pri-
mary came from a planetary Newtonian
I was using, while the secondary and ter-
tiary came from a Stevick-Paul project
that was never completed. (I found the
folding flat mirror by patiently shopping
on the Internet.)
I assembled a machine to grind and
polish the mirrors. (This could just as well
have been accomplished by hand, but I
like to tinker with machinery.) A pen laser
was used to check the surface polish on
each mirror; only after its beam passed
through the front surface undetected was
the polishing deemed complete. I wanted
to obtain a very good polish because any
residual surface scatter would be contrib-
uted by each of the four reflections.
Once a mirror is completely polished,
the testing and figuring process begins.
These techniques are amply described in
numerous books on the subject. Since
the telescope will perform very well with
spherical mirrors, the simplest test of all
can be applied: the null test. As seen with
the help of a Foucault knife-edge and
slit, a spherical mirror will appear as a
uniformly gray disk when examined with
this method. The convex mirror can be
tested by mating it with the concave pri-
mary and looking at the resulting inter-
ference patterns.
For the adventuresome in search of
optical perfection, the primary’s ellip-
soidal figure can be very accurately
measured with the caustic test. I have a
modified test procedure available that is
particularly useful for checking the figure
of long-focus mirrors, and I invite those
interested to contact me for details.
Don’t be intimidated by the precision of
the specifications in the table below. Those
numbers represent the “as built” mirror
curves and are not to be construed as fab-
rication targets. Likewise, the separations
shown are not as touchy as one might
expect. A little time spent at the eyepiece,
adjusting tilts during star testing, goes a
long way toward balancing any separation
shortcomings. Ray tracing also suggests
that the radii of curvature of the mirrors
can vary by as much as 20 percent as long
as the mechanical layout is adjusted to
compensate for any such departures.
NEWTRYAD’s design yields a focal
plane tilted by slightly less than 6°. The
eyepiece must be perpendicular to this
focal plane to provide sharp focus over
the entire field, and for this reason it

NEWTRYAD Tilted-Mirror Telescope

Radius of Conic Tilt3 Separation
curvature (inches) constant1 (degrees) (inches)
Primary mirror 150.19 –0.534 8.2 22.74
Secondary mirror 2 –139.96 0 –11.45 12.23
Folding flat mirror — — –41.75 40.85
Tertiary mirror 134.19 0 2.18 46.81
1
Conic constant is defined as the negative of the square of the eccentricity.
2
Negative radius denotes convex mirror.
3
Tilt is defined with respect to the reflection at each surface; the total ray deflection is twice the tilt angle given here.

130 July 1999 Sky & Telescope ©1999 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
needs to be a little cocked with respect to
the telescope housing. I solved this prob-
lem with a pivot arm that places the eye-
piece’s field lens parallel to the focal
plane. Focusing is accomplished by turn-
ing a knob located between the eyepiece
and the pivot point of the spring-loaded
arm. For small focusing excursions the
pivot arm moves the eyepiece in a nearly
perfect straight line. Parfocal eyepieces
are needed to keep the arm positioned in
its nominally ideal spot. (I suspect that
NEWTRYAD would produce good re-
sults even if the eyepieces weren’t tilted,
but I have yet to try this.)
I had on hand an equatorial mount
from a previous project. This mount cou-
ples to the tube containing the tertiary
mirror. Saddling this tube (a 6-inch-diam-
eter aluminum irrigation pipe) to make it Three of NEWTRYAD’s four mirrors can be adequately collimated indoors, leaving the observer
the declination axle allows me to observe, to adjust only the secondary mirror (as shown here) under the stars for optimal performance.
in most cases, while sitting in a chair.
ized. On paper, collimating a TCT like once. An inexpensive pointer-style laser
Under the Stars mine would appear to be a logistical is plugged into a temporary holder at the
The optical elements in any telescope nightmare, since each of four mirrors can sky end of the system and centered on
must be collimated, or aligned, before the tilt in any direction! Yet experience has the optical axis. The side is then removed
instrument can be put to productive use. shown that collimating NEWTRYAD is from the optical assembly so you can ob-
This is especially true if the high perfor- surprisingly easy if done in stages. serve the laser beam and make tilt ad-
mance of a complex design is to be real- The preliminary adjustment is done justments in accordance with the optical-

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©1999 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Sky & Telescope July 1999 131
 By depicting simulated star images across a 1⁄2°-wide field of view, these spot diagrams con-
telescope techniques
firm NEWTRYAD’s enviable performance. Each hypothetical bundle of parallel light rays con-
verges within a 2-arcsecond-wide zone on the focal plane. Note that these clumps are no big-
Star images,
1/4° from ger than the theoretical Airy disk for a 6-inch aperture. Courtesy the author.
center of field

Star image,
center of field
Airy disk,
6-inch aperture
1 arcsecond
path layout. First the beam is aimed at
the center of the primary mirror. Next,
the tilt of the primary is adjusted to send
the beam to a dot temporarily applied to
the center of the secondary. The process
is continued from secondary to flat, from
flat to tertiary, and from tertiary to eye-
piece. The mirror separations need not
be precisely adjusted since the final mir-
ror-tilt adjustments during star testing
will compensate for any small errors in
mirror separation.
Having accomplished this preliminary
collimation, you can do the final tweak-
ing while viewing a reasonably bright
star — preferably on a night of good see-
ing. Using the simple star test described
by Harold R. Suiter (S &T: March 1995,
page 42), a final adjustment of the sec-
ondary screws removes any residual
astigmatism not cleared up by the laser
adjustment. While stroking the eyepiece
in and out of focus, pay close attention
to the appearance of the star. Initially the
out-of-focus shape will appear elliptical,
most likely oriented at an angle to the
telescope’s line of sight. Moving one of
the side-tilt screws will rotate the ellipse
until its long dimension points toward
the test star. At this point you can turn
the top adjusting screw until the ellipse
becomes a perfect circle. That’s all there
is to collimation! These final adjustments
are made while sitting at the eyepiece,
where the secondary mirror’s adjusting
screws are within easy reach.
On nights of good seeing the details
revealed by this telescope attest to the
benefits of unobstructed reflecting op-
tics. It is as though a final veil has been
lifted from views of the dynamic surface
of Jupiter. As the orbiting moons cross
the face of the planet, they remain visible
as luminous miniature globes floating
above the bands and festoons of the
gaseous giant. Colors are particularly
crisp; even the surface of our Moon re-
veals subtle hues I had not noticed previ-
ously. Saturn’s crepe ring is seen so clear-
ly that I wonder why its discovery took
so long.
Most of the objects I observe are fairly
bright, but I’m also pleased with the tele-
scope’s performance on the Orion Nebula.
I can see a surprising amount of structure
in the form of wisps surrounding the cen-
tral Trapezium stars.

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132 July 1999 Sky & Telescope ©1999 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
Pick Your Size
Unlike some unobstructed reflectors,
NEWTRYAD’s design scales up or down
very nicely. One of my current projects is
a compact binocular version, inspired
through conversation and correspon-
dence with Richard Buchroeder. It is
based on 41⁄4-inch mirrors and will oper-
ate at f/10. On the subject of upscaling,
the largest unobstructed telescope in the
world is the 60-inch (1.5-meter) Mc-
Math solar telescope on Kitt Peak. A 60-
inch version of NEWTRYAD would pro-
duce a diffraction-limited field of view
more than 3 inches in diameter! An alt-
azimuth mount would make it possible
to reach the eyepiece without a sky-
scraper ladder.
However, I doubt the atmosphere
would cooperate often enough to take
advantage of the diffraction limit at this
aperture, particularly at the locations
where most amateurs observe. On the
other hand, 8-inch, 10-inch, 121⁄2-inch, or
even 16-inch versions would be quite
practical, and, depending on the climate,
they may actually produce images that
would justify the effort required to build
them. Here in Kansas City my 6-inch
unit is a practical size, considering the
number of available good-seeing nights. Advertisement
Although my design resulted in a 6-
inch f/15 system (which would be bulky
by refractor standards), I can easily move
NEWTRYAD from my house and set it
up in my backyard within five minutes,
thanks to its modular construction. The
equatorial mount weighs 31 pounds (14
kilograms) and travels separately. The
optical assembly, at 43 pounds, attaches
to the mount with wing nuts. Finally, the
23-pound counterweight bolts to the
mount to complete the setup.
I was able to complete NEWTRYAD in
just three months (discounting the design
time) and am very pleased with the result.
This project owes a lot to the published
work by such TCT designers as Anton
Kutter, Richard Buchroeder, Art Leonard,
José Sasian, and David Stevick, as well as
numerous others, such as Michael Brunn,
whose designs I studied to gain a better
understanding of the options.

John Francis is an engineering manager for

a material-handling company in the Kansas
City area. Readers with further questions on
his telescope-design and mirror-testing pro-
cedures are invited to write him at 13104
Larsen Street, Overland Park, KS 66213, or at
julesfran@aol.com.

©1999 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Sky & Telescope July 1999 133