Ritchey-Chrétien Telescopes

RC Telescopes Systems for High-Precision Imaging

Avantier offers the latest in high-performance Ritchey-Chrétien telescopes with extensive use of aluminum and silicon carbide (SiC). These telescopes are inherently athermal and lightweight, ensuring consistent imaging performance while reducing launch costs. Custom solutions are available upon request.

Ritchey-Chrétien Telescopes

The RC telescope is a specialized reflecting telescope within the Cassegrain optical system, featuring hyperbolic primary and secondary mirrors. This design effectively reduces optical errors like spherical aberration and coma, which are common in traditional reflecting telescopes. The Ritchey-Chrétien optical design enhances off-axis image quality and offers a wider field of view, although it does not fully eliminate field curvature and astigmatism. These telescopes are well-suited for astronomical observations, as demonstrated by their use in the Hubble Space Telescope. However, the precision required for aligning the optical axes of the primary and secondary mirrors, along with the complexity of manufacturing hyperbolic mirrors, makes Ritchey-Chrétien telescopes more challenging and costly to produce compared to other designs. Despite these challenges, they remain a popular choice for applications requiring high image quality over a wide field of view, such as in RC telescopes, due to their ability to eliminate chromatic aberrations and maintain image quality across varying focal lengths.

Manufacturing Capability

Type	Ritchey-Chrétien (Cassegrain Telescope)
Material	Aluminum, Primary and secondary mirrors coated with silver
Dimensions	∅110 x 210.5 mm
Aperture Range	Consumer-Grade Systems: Ø100 mm – Ø200 mm, Research-Grade Systems: Up to Ø500 mm
Focal Length and Focal Ratio	Focal Length: 760 mm – 1600 mm, F/# (Focal Ratio): F/5.6 – F/8
Interface	1-32 UN, compatible with C-mount cameras, flange-to-image distance 17.5mm
Spectral Coverage	Operating Wavelength Range: Visible to Near-Infrared (VIS–NIR)
Total Weight of the Lens	0.3 kg

We offer aluminum and SiC materials for primary mirrors, secondary mirrors, and optical metering structures, providing flexibility in launch orientations. Designed for simplicity and economy, the all-ceramic construction outperforms typical refractive designs by providing broadband, thermally insensitive performance. The standardized architecture and generalized specifications define baseline performance, with custom designs tailored to mission requirements.

Customized Ritchey-Chrétien Telescope Solutions

The satellite telescope project begins by understanding customers’ goals for performance, schedule, and budget. Avantier offers preliminary solutions based on a library of designs and baseline telescope products. Sensor selection and spacecraft interface are conducted collaboratively with the customers’ systems engineers to create effective final designs.