Idle Diffractions

Bruce Irving’s Blog

Bruce Irving has an interesting blog, made up of entries on the eclectic topics he’s interested in. Bruce is a singer-songwriter, a JPL Solar System Ambassador, an optical engineer (he’s a colleague of mine at ORA responsible for our international sales), a linguist and a really interesting guy! Here’s a link to his page:
http://flyingsinger.blogspot.com/

Here’s a link to an interesting piece he wrote about a PBS program called “400 Years of the Telescope”
http://flyingsinger.blogspot.com/2009/05/400-years-of-telescope.html

And here’s a piece he wrote on the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 – if my article didn’t satiate your interest!
http://flyingsinger.blogspot.com/2009/05/hubbles-wfpc2-farewell.html

Bruce might write an occasional entry for me on this blog, and I’ll be monitoring his blog for interesting optics articles and provide you with a link when they are published.

The Lick Observatory: First Glimpses of Galaxies

Recently, a series of “best of” images for the Hubble were circling on the Internet.  One of the finalists (not sure who the judges were, but it is a nice choice) is of the Sombrero galaxy in a very nice side on view. 

Image credit: NASA/Hubble Heritage Team

It reminds me of one of I think the most astonishing items under the heading “History of Science.”  That is that in spite of the commissioning of the first modern-era reflecting telescopes on Mt. Hamilton, known as the Lick Observatory (does anyone know anything about Lick?), which from 1890 to 1928 created readily accessible images of what are now known as galaxies, no one realized that these images represented collections of stars, and they were referred to as nebulae.  At this point, I’m actually in search of whom to credit with the transition, should anyone out there know.  From my book-collecting days, I have some of the Publications of the Lick Observatory from 1893, 1908, and 1913 and similar publications for the Crossley Reflector in England, commissioned around 1891.  It is amazing to me, in the time of what we consider some of the greatest scientists, including Einstein, this went unrecognized for so long.  It is one of the things that I find most fascinating about the older books. 

Below are some of the images from this collection.  I included the galaxy that is considered most like ours: Andromeda.  In fact, I included three images, taken in 1893, 1899, and 1908 (or at least published in – more study needed).  In this period, there are many items limiting this process.  The telescope is the first factor, and in some ways the least limiting.  Photography is advancing at that point, but exposure times onto glass plate negatives are prohibitive.  Finally, the printing from the negatives to the publication is probably the most limiting.  Scanning these also adds to the process. 

Andromeda galaxy image, 1893

Andromeda galaxy image, 1899

 
Andromeda galaxy image, 1908

For this note, I’ve included the Owl nebula and the Dumb-Bell nebula, as these are true nebula that have held these common names through the years and are likely to appear again as the latest Hubble images emerge. 

 
Owl nebula image, 1908

The publications of the Lick Observatory in this period are now online (Google “Publications of the Lick Observatory”). I see that a few are on the market, for over 10 times what I paid, back when.  I’ll return with more on this topic, but, in the interim – check it out.

On Efforts to Preserve Rare Optics Books, Part 2

In 2000, a majority of the books that I collected between 1985 and 1995 were donated to the College of Optics at the University of Arizona, other than the most significant, e.g., Smiths, Optiks, from 1728 and the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, edited by David Brewster, that was published in the 1820s. These collected volumes were placed in nice, locked glasses cases on the first floor (which is actually a basement four stories underground), where, they are languishing in spite of best intentions.

I wrote an article on the more rare books that was published in OSA’s Optics and Photonics News in October 2005. The cover photo is actually some of my favorite objects from the past.  Besides the books there is an Edison lamp, I found in Maine, with an antique glass lampshade that a friend of mine who collects (nice choice for a hobby) gave me for my birthday, all placed on an authentic Stickley library table that I got from Skinner auctions, from Bolton, MA, from the days when I lived in Harvard, MA.  For those in that area of the country, www.skinner.com has one of the few remaining auctions specifically on scientific instruments – extremely dangerous.

Image from my article for Optics and Photonics News,
“Early Books in Optics and Optical Design” (Vol. 16, Issue 10, pp. 28-33)

So, there is a new project underway, funded by my employer Optical Research Associates and with the support of the Dean of the College of Optical Sciences, Dr. Wyant, and the faculty, particularly Prof. Greivenkamp and Sasian, to scan the optics volumes (as a starting point) and post them to the rare books web site at www.opticalres.com, the rare book library at the University of Rochester, and a Web site to be determined at the University of Arizona.

The physical scanning is to be done by a company named Kitara, in Victor, New York, who I hear is the world leader in this technology (if anyone has other experiences, let me know before it’s too late) and the character recognition is being provided by the staff at the University of Rochester rare books library. 

As many reading this would know, and others need to know, Google has created a Beta Web site where they are providing access to a phenomenal and growing collection of scientific books, particularly pre-1910 (to avoid copyright issues).  The staff at ORA has gone through a list of the 237 most significant books and learned that less than 20% are currently available at www.scholar.google.com .  Eventually, one would hope that most of these books would appear there, but, even then, having the optics collection localized, at least seems very useful, and hence the upcoming project.

The goal is to post the scanned books at the Web sites before or at the 2010 International Optics Design Conference (IODC).  The conference will be held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in June of 2010.

How Coddington Changed My Life

In 1985, I had a single goal: to purchase a copy of Coddington’s 1829 book on optics, for reasons I will save for later.  This process actually took me 10 years.  And, of course, the month I found one Coddington, I came independently on to three copies; I bought them all.

In this period, I acquired over 500 volumes in optics, astronomy, and physics, predominantly, pre-1930.  Over time, I will highlight some of these and soon I will build a link to the list of books.

My diversion was initially created from a trip to Yale University, where the librarian at Perkin-Elmer Corp. had found there was a copy.  This was the early 1980s, and for mere money ($30/mo. as I recall) you were allowed to enter the stacks and wander anywhere.  This changed my life.  Coddington was there on the shelf, surrounded by literally hundreds of volumes on optics, most from the 1800s.  Here, for example, is where I saw the Edinburgh encyclopedia for the first time (and I expected the last).  The Edinburgh encyclopedia is particularly interesting because in 1820, there were very few encyclopedias.  This particular encyclopedia was written on a subscription basis and edited by David Brewster.  David Brewster is famous for a number of things, including Brewster’s angle in polarization and arguably the invention of the kaleidoscope (at least in his mind, although he never got any money for it).  The topics of the encyclopedia were relatively random as the structure of encyclopedias had yet to be standardized.  One clue to this is that there are 18 (large, 1,000 page) volumes.  Fifteen of these cover the first half of the alphabet, A-M, and three volumes cover O (including optics) through Z.  More on this fascinating collection another time.  Once in, I spent three days in the stacks, and formulated my plan to assemble a similar collection in a more accessible location.

The James Webb Space Telescope

The JWST is the telescope that will follow Hubble Space Telescope.  It is something I thought to write about because it is not that easy at the moment to get information about the optics details in particular of the telescope. 

At the just ended 2009 SPIE Annual meeting, I presented my work to create an estimated model of the very complex (from an optical design perspective) NIRSpec instrument being built now, in Europe, for the JWST.  This instrument consists of the JWST (an obscured, field-biased Three Mirror Anastigmat (TMA) followed by a Relay, Collimator, grating, and Camera, each of which is itself an unobscured TMA.  I will write more on this paper at another time. 

• Download "Using Nodal Aberration Theory to understand the aberrations of multiple unobscured Three Mirror Anastigmatic (TMA) telescopes" paper
• Download presentation

If You're still at SPIE's Optics + Photonics: VISIT THE TELESCOPES - This Is Not To Be Missed

For those still at the show - be sure not to leave today before visiting the telescope collection.  This is not your pile of odd antiques - this is a professional collection of early telescopes, initiated by a classmate, Prof. John Greivenkamp. Supported by THE College of Optical Sciences (for the benefit of M.J. Soileau and those at the Fellow Lunch), the collection in the back of the exhibit hall is the largest collection of scientific telescopes from the mid-1700s currently on display anywhere in the world (yes, there are places with more telescopes, but, they are not on display (go figure).

The collection is very well commented and brings together a very diverse set of telescopes (and a few binoculars). These are truly rare pieces and this could prove to be the only time they are brought out onto the road like this. So, do skip that paper you have on your schedule - or that one last aisle in the exhibit area.

By the way, the poster on the astronomical telescopes of the past has scans of early woodcuts found in Smith's 1728 book Opticks, which I will cover in a later writing.  The poster was assembled by students at the University of Rochester under the direction of Prof. Jannick Rolland, who recently transferred to the University from CREOL (the College of Optics and Photonics, again for those at the Fellows lunch).

Hope this finds you in time.  If not, I will provide a Plan B, but not until you fail regarding plan A.

The Wide Field and Planetary Cameras of the Hubble Space Telescope, Part 2

The WFPC2, recently replaced in the Hubble by the WFPC3, took many of the most famous pictures of the cosmos. It may be the most famous single camera in history. JPL has recently written a couple of articles on this legendary camera, first installed in the Hubble in 1993. It has been receiving lots of “retirement accolades” recently, some which you might find interesting.

There is a recent article on the return of the WFPC 2 to earth:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features.cfm?feature=2163

Accompanied by a multimedia gallery of some of the WFPC 2’s most famous images:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=830

With the last mission to the Hubble space telescope recently completed, successfully, I thought to post my role in the First Servicing Mission, the one that was critical to the overall mission of NASA to keep the public engaged with astronomy.  I had a somewhat unique position in the program and a critical role in the repair (or as they prefer to call it, “servicing”).

I intend to write on this topic over a series of sessions, primarily to provide my somewhat unique view of the servicing mission.  The success of the Hubble First servicing mission had many key contributors, and I was happy to be one of them.  It turned out that this was one of my last major technical contributions before being moved into management.

On Efforts to Preserve Rare Optics Books, Part 1

One of my primary optics interests is based around a period of intensive (at least by my standards) book collecting that occurred for me in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  During that period, which is notably pre-Internet, I developed a specific set of interests that I would like to now bring forward with a motivation to engage those who have knowledge of and access to related material.  The specific optics topics I will be writing on are likely to be

• geometrical optics and optical design between 1885 and 1980
• optics before 1885

I have the same motivation now as I had in 1985.  The history of optics and particularly optical design is scattered about the country, and for that matter the world.  It is essential that we take a moment to collect this material up and place it in a common location, to the extent we can.  Or, at least try to build and maintain a location that attempts to keep and catalog links to the past 125 years of this aspect of science.