ON THE CAPABILITIES OF SURVEY TELESCOPES OF MODERATE SIZE

ABSTRACT To explore the capabilities of moderate-size optical telescopes used in surveys, a set of nine new wide-field designs, having apertures of up to 1 m, was created. The designs were optimized to ensure the widest possible field of view with an image quality better than 3″ across the field. All but one of the systems have an angular field in a range of 3 5-10° and a flat focal surface; the field of the last system is 45° in diameter with an aperture 0.5 m and a spherical focal surface. Relations between the expected limiting magnitude, survey speed, and exposure time allow one to choose the system that is best suited for the objectives of specific observations. In particular, a single wide-field telescope with an aperture of approximately 1 m can detect objects brighter than 22.5m over the entire hemisphere within one night. Since the optical layouts are of practical interest, their complete descriptions are given.