Colleagues:

As a coda to last weeks missive I reserved the knottiest part for today, All Hallows Eve.

My optical design friends like to solve for the point spread function in a lens design code like CodeV or Zemax.  To achieve the same accuracy as my Nastran analysis they would require the use of the first 5,280 Zernike polynomials in the series.  With some effort the number could possibly be reduced to just 264 from among those polynomials.  Then they would trace the rays.  Have any of you ever used 264 Zernike polynomials in a lens design code at the same time?  Great Fun!

My Halloween treat for all of you is a direct solution, via AEH/Ebony and Nastran, to structurally deformed point spread functions.  Even More Fun!

Now, Beware the Great Pumpkin!

Happy Halloween.

Al H.
10-31-13