Ritchie Chretien Telescope

The former Ritchie Chretien telescope is now the Baker Richie Chretien telescope, or BRC for short. It's now produced by Takahashi.

The newest version of the Richie Chretien telescope uses surfaces that are non spherical for both of its mirrors - primary as well as secondary. The Baker Chretien telescope combines these mirrors with two additional lenses, thus eliminating spherical aberrations, comas and even astigmatisms with flat fields. It can also create positively alter both focal ratio and image circle. The stellar imaging it creates, 2 microns in size, at the field's center, is breathtaking.

The Baker Richie Chretien uses a standard Baker optical method that, over a field of extensive width, flattens the field. Its primary and secondary mirrors, however, are hyperbolic, which means that production of the Baker Chretien telescope is not easy. Takahashi recently created a new production method, however. Mass producing of the Baker Richie Chretien is now possible through a unique concept of non-spherical surface polishing.

With its large image - a full 100 mm - the Baker Chretien telescope is an astrograph noteworthy for its versatility. It can use 35mm, 6x7, and 6x9 as well as 4x5 format. Temperature is compensated for in the Baker Richie Chretien by the use of an advancement called a carbon fiber tub. This tube, a state of the art space age advance, guarantees precision focus that is not altered as the temperature changes.

With a comparably small stellar image, the Baker Richie Chretien sky telescope is ideal as well for doing CCD image work. The image circle, 100mm, is big enough to be sued with the CCD cameras available commercially today.