Three-reflections telescope proposalas flat-field anastigmat for wide field observations at Dome C

Abstract

It is now evident that the exceptional seeing at Dome C willallow, in the next years, to pursue astronomical programs withconditions better than at any other observatory in the world, andvery close to space experiments.Considering a new type of wide-field telescope, particularastronomical programs could be well optimized for observations atDome C such as surveys for the discovery and follow up ofnear-Earth asteroids, search for extra-solar planets using transitor micro-lensing events, and stellar luminosity variations.We propose to build a 1.5–2 m class three-reflections telescope, with1–1.5 degree FOV, four times shorter than an equivalent Schmidttelescope, and providing a flat field without requiring atriplet- or quadruplet-lens corrector since its design isanastigmatic.We present the preliminary optical tests of such designs:MINITRUST 1 and 2 are two 45 cm identical prototypes based inFrance and Italy, and manufactured using active optics techniques.