Raymond Wilson (physicist)
Raymond N. Wilson ( b. 1928 in Sutton Coldfield ) is an English physicist, known for his designs of optical systems for large telescopes.
Wilson studied physics at the University of Birmingham and Engineering at Imperial College. He led for 11 years, the design division for the telescopes at Carl Zeiss AG in Oberkochen. From 1972 to 1993 he headed the optics and telescope group of the European Southern Observatory. He developed the concept of active optics for large telescopes, in which instead of an extremely serious dimensionally stable under all conditions the primary mirror, a lighter primary mirror is used, the shape of which is regulated in different positions of the telescope active to set out. This technology was first used at the New Technology Telescope at ESO, it was crucial to the concept of the ESO Very Large Telescope.
After his retirement in 1993 Wilson wrote a two-volume monograph on the telescope optics and expanded his designs of telescope optics to systems with three to five levels of, as discussed for future extremely large telescopes.
Publications (selection)
- Raymond N. Wilson, Reflecting Telescope Optics I. Basic Design Theory and its Historical Development, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York 1996, ISBN 3-540-58964-3
- Raymond N. Wilson, Reflecting Telescope Optics II Manufacture, Testing, Alignment, Modern Techniques, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York 1999, ISBN 3-540-60356-5