Building a Schupmann Medial

Refracting Telescope

Hartness House
August 1, 2019
Clif Ashcraft
 What in the world is a
Schupmann Medial Telescope?
• A unique and underappreciated
type of telescope invented by
Ludwig Schupmann in Germany
late in the 19th century.
• The only perfectly achromatic
refractor.
• A refractor that uses only one
kind of optical glass.
• A coronagraph.
• A spectroscope.
• An outstanding lunar and
planetary telescope.
Sounds amazing, but how does it work?
Here’s a schematic diagram to illustrate the principle:

Really bad image

Objective lens

• The objective is a simple lens, usually made of BK7 crown

glass, bent to minimize coma, but could be any transparent
and homogenous material.
• Its focus has a huge amount of longitudinal chromatic
aberration.
• This produces a completely useless, highly chromatic
image.
 But wait, there’s more to it:
Field mirror

Image of entrance pupil (objective lens)

• A concave “field mirror” is placed in the middle of the

chromatic focal range.
• Its radius of curvature is the same as its distance to the lens.
• The field mirror is tilted slightly, and forms a real image of
the entrance pupil in space off to the side of the lens.
 Now here’s the gimmick:

silver

Perfectly achromatic image

• A special mangin mirror (silvered on the back) is physically superimposed upon the
image of the entrance pupil.
• Its radii are selected so its refractive power is negative and exactly cancels the
positive power of the objective lens.
• It is tilted slightly and because of the reflective back surface, forms a perfectly color
corrected real image off to the side of the field lens where it can be diverted for
viewing with a diagonal.
• No obstruction, no color.
 Color Correction
The final image of the Schupmann is PERFECTLY achromatic:
all wavelengths come to a common focus,
not just two wavelengths as in an achromat,
or even three wavelengths as in an apochromat.

Simple lens
Focal length --->

Achromat

Schupmann

Apochromat

300 400 500 600 700 800

Wavelength --->

AND, there is no chromatic difference of magnification

Further considerations:
• The image has astigmatism because of the pitch angle of the Mangin mirror
which makes the image accessible.
• The astigmatism is cancelled by a slight tilt of the objective lens in “yaw”,
at right angles to the pitch of the mangin mirror. You can get away with this
because the radii of the objective lens were selected to eliminate coma.
yaw

perfect
Blurry imageimage
astigmatic

pitch
(Further considerations cont.)
• Either or both the objective and the corrector are figured to
remove residual spherical and zonal aberration.

LA

Petal lap
(Further considerations cont.)
• Micrometric adjustments in the cell of the field mirror precisely align
the image of the objective lens upon the mangin corrector.
– This is essential for exact cancellation of the chromatic aberration.
Flat
Kinematic Field Mirror Mounting

Spring
Field Vee-grouve
mirror

Conical hole Ball tipped

Micrometer
screws

• Deliberate mis-adjustment of the field mirror can be taken advantage

of to “tune out” atmospheric dispersion. This can also be used to
create the spectrum of a star.
(Further considerations cont.)
• A Lyot stop placed at the corrector and an occulting cone placed at the
field lens converts it into a solar coronograph.
• The largest coronograph solar telescope in the world, at La Palma in the Canary Islands
. is in fact a 39” Schupmann.

Bright diffraction edge

Occulting cone
Blocks central part of solar image

Solar Image
with corona and
prominences
Lyot Stop
Blocks light from diffraction edge around objective
 Stellafane 13” Super-Schupmann
Mangin Corrector Size
• The mangin corrector does not have to be the full size of the objective.
• Schupmann made his correctors quite small, ~10% or less of the objective size
• When the telescope is to be used as a solar coronograph, the exact ratio is not
critical since both the objective and the corrector are figured so that both the
intermediate and final images are spherically corrected. 50% size correctors
are frequently used in this case.
• In the late 60’s, I explored this factor and found a significant advantage to
using smaller correctors: when the corrector is exactly 53.76% of the size of
the lens, both the spherical aberration and the zonal aberration go to zero, ie,
all surfaces can be made spherical.
• I called this special case the “Super Schupmann” and brought it to the
attention of Jim Daley, a Schupmann enthusiast (and author of a book on the
Schupmann) and member of the Springfield Telescope Makers.
• This all spherical aplanatic design discovery was confirmed by extensive ray
trace analysis by Bert Willard of the Springfield Telescope Makers.
• Subsequently, Jim Daley built a 6” Super Schupmann, and the 13” at
MacGregor observatory at Stellafane was built as a Super Schupmann. Both
had excellent performance with all spherical surfaces.
 Advantages of the Schupmann Design
• Perfectly achromatic
– Zero longitudinal chromatic aberration (primary, secondary, tertiary, all gone)
– Zero lateral color (no little spectra at the edges of the field)
– Can tune out atmospheric dispersion without expensive Risley prisms.
• Excellent for use at shorter wavelengths
– No flint element is used in the design that would absorb deep blue and UV
– For really deep UV fused quartz could be used instead of crown glass
• No central obstruction
• Can be made with all spherical surfaces (Super Schupmann)
• Mangin element easier to make and less expensive than the flint element of an
achromat or apochromat
– Spherical surfaces
– Larger wedge tolerances
– Smaller, no need for flint or low dispersion crown glass
– Null test can be used in final figuring.
• Very low light scattering from 2nd surface reflection in Mangin
– No 1st surface reflections in split field design
– Reflective field element could be Mangin also, ie, planoconvex lens aluminized on plano side.
• Lyot stop can be added for coronagraph level performance.
Getting my hands on one…
• I had wanted to build a
Schupmann since I first learned
about the design’s wonderful
features back in the 60’s.
• I had even tried to talk AAI into
building the 10” refractor at
Sperry observatory as a
Schupmann,
however the technical
committee was rather
conservative and
decided to build my
classical Clark style
airspaced doublet
design instead…
 (Getting my hands on one…
• Over the years since, cont.)
I never quite got
up the ambition to make the optics for a
Schupmann myself, however, I learned
that my buddy Jim Daley had an
available set of 7.25” f/14 Schupmann
optics.
• This set was from his first Schupmann,
made with a 50% corrector.
• The objective and corrector were
figured separately so that both the
intermediate focus and the final focus
were corrected for spherical aberration.

• Jim had built the tube oversized so he could also use it for his second
Schupmann, a 9” f/11 design of the same focal length.
• The objective and corrector cells he had originally made for his telescope
were also available since they could not be used with the 9” f/11 design.
• I purchased the optics from Jim and proceeded to get busy building an
optical tube to house them.
Design of f/14, 7.25” Schupmann
Curves computed by Ed Olson for n D=1.51763

Objective R1=56.553 convex, 0.11618 sagitta

t12=1.000
R2=630.2 convex, 0.010426 sagitta
} Coma free

space to field mirror =99.40

Field mirror R3=66.767 concave, 0.007489 sagitta

space to corrector = 50.00

Corrector R4=12.443 concave, 0.1736 sagitta

t45=.500,
R5=24.961 convex, 0.0865 sagitta

distance to focus = 50.0.

Objective blank diameter =190mm (7.48”)

Corrector blank diameter=103mm (4.055").
Ray Trace Analysis
Next, layout the shape of tube and location of light baffles

There are LOTs of baffles. You need to prevent

seeing the objective from the eyepiece position.
And finally, add supporting structure and details

Diagonal mirror
rotation knob

} Micrometer adjustment of
field lens cell

Tailpiece detail
I decided to go with a 1/8” Luan skin on wood frame construction -
much like a stick, bulkhead and tissue paper model airplane,
relying upon diagonal members and skin for strength and rigidity:
All baffles cemented in
Top and bottom panels added
More details for tailpiece
Tailpiece
finished
 “Mounted” for testing on
artificial star and
astigmatism adjustment.

Artificial star is the

image of the rising sun
formed in a 14”
diameter silvered
sphere hanging from a
tree about 600 feet
away.

Tweak
micrometer
adjustments
…
Bleaghh!
 Fully
assembled
and
painted
Really mounted
on Meade
Starfinder GE
mount

First light - 6/18/07

Jupiter 30 sec video at
f/42, Registax processed
(I have done a lot better)
 Schupmann Medials at Stellafane

Matt Considine Bert Willard Dave Grosky Mike Mattei Bill Cheng Noah Me
Jim Daley
Under construction…
Observatory Finished
Crater Schickhard
on the Moon
 Planetary Imaging with MacGregor Schupmann

Mars, August 6, 2018

13” Schupmann, MacGregor Observatory
Stopped down to 9” aperture, f/14.1
ASI120MC, NIR blocking Filter
Meanwhile, back in New Jersey, I continued NIR imaging of
Mars through the Dust Storm with my 7.25” Schupmann:
Storm front

Gale Crater
Curiosity

Motion of
Dust storm front
in 2 days
Io
Io’s
Shadow
Questions?
 First step: full scale layout
Corrector
Objective

Field mirror

Final
Corrector focal
plane
Lyot stop
Diagonal

Field
mirror

This layout is NOT going to fit into a Sono-Tube!

For the construction, we need a big flat workspace

1/8” Luan mahogany plywood 4x8 sheet

r kt a ble
f t wo
9
Luan side panels and yellow poplar corner strips cut out
Side bracing members glued in
1/2” square pine strips
used for bracing members.
Titebond II carpenter’s
glue used in assembly.
 Baffles, lots of them.

Computer printout
paper pattern

exact size holes

in aluminum
flashing baffles

Over-size holes in
plywood bulkheads,
Corrector box
Fiddly bits…