Optics of the light-weight and foldable telescope based on the Fresnel lens

We analyze an optical system of a telescope based on Fresnel type objective lens as suggested by Hyde (1999). The Fresnel objective lens can be thin, light-weight and foldable, and therefore it is possible to develop a space telescope with an aperture larger than that of traditional telescopes. Moreover a lens, whatever it is either Fresnel type or conventional, allows much larger fabrication tolerances. We design a medium-sized telescope adopting Fresnel lens as an objective lens for use in space and possibly on the ground. The well-known chromatic aberration of the Fresnel primary lens is corrected by a field lens and another Fresnel lens using Schupmann method. An additional lens is used for forming images. We analyze the chromatic and off-axis aberrations of the proposed system analytically and suggest methods for the minimization of off-axis aberrations and for the operation in wider spectral range. We also conduct ray tracing and optimize the whole optical system with commercial software. Finally we present the design parameters of a telescope with an aperture of 0.5 to 1 meters, enabling diffraction limited operation for a moderate field of view about 10 arc-minutes.