NORMAN ALAN PAGE
Pilots at Orange Ave, Monrovia, CA

5071251, Dec 10, 1991

Jun 12, 1989

7/364165

Eric B. Hochberg - Altadena CA
Norman A. Page - Monrovia CA

California Institute of Technology - Pasadena CA

G01B 902

356359

A polychromatic interferometer utilizing a plurality of parabolic reflective surfaces to properly preserve the fidelity of light wavefronts irrespective of their wavelengths as they pass through the instrument is disclosed. A preferred embodiment of the invention utilizes an optical train which comprises three off-axis parabolas arranged in conjunction with a beam-splitter and a reference mirror to form a Twyman-Green interferometer. An illumination subsystem is provided and comprises a pair of lasers at different preselected wavelengths in the visible spectrum. The output light of the two lasers is coaxially combined by means of a plurality of reflectors and a grating beam combiner to form a single light source at the focal point of the first parabolic reflection surface which acts as a beam collimator for the rest of the optical train. By using visible light having two distinct wavelengths, the present invention provides a long equivalent wavelength interferogram which operates at visible light wherein the effective wavelength is equal to the product of the wavelengths of the two laser sources divided by their difference in wavelength. As a result, the invention provides the advantages of what amounts to long wavelength interferometry but without incurring the disadvantage of the negligible reflection coefficient of the human eye to long wavelength frequencies which would otherwise defeat any attempt to form an interferogram at that low frequency using only one light source.

6922430, Jul 26, 2005

Nov 19, 2002

10/299121

Abhijit Biswas - Arcadia CA, US
Babak Sanji - Pasadena CA, US
Malcolm W. Wright - Pasadena CA, US
Norman Alan Page - Monrovia CA, US

California Institute of Technology - Pasadena CA

H01S003/08, G02B027/10

372100, 372101, 359618, 359625, 359626

An optical beacon is comprised of a telescope having a primary focal plane or Coudé focal plane, a plurality of fiber coupled laser sources for generating a plurality of beams, a collimator for collimating the plurality of beams, and optics for combining and focusing the plurality of collimated beams onto the primary or Coudé focal plane of the telescope. The telescope propagates the optical beacon, which is arranged into a ring of incoherent plurality of collimated beams. The apparatus further comprises fiber splitters coupled to each laser source to provide at least eight beams from at least four laser sources. The optics comprises a prism assembly, a combiner lens, a focusing lens and a field lens for focusing the plurality of collimated beams onto the primary focal plane or Coudé focal plane of the telescope.

4497540, Feb 5, 1985

Mar 23, 1983

6/478130

James B. Breckinridge - La Canada CA
Norman A. Page - Monrovia CA
Roland V. Shack - Tucson AZ
Robert R. Shannon - Tucson AZ

The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Washington DC

G02B 510

350168

Disclosed is an optical system used in a spacecraft to observe a remote surface and provide a spatial and spectral image of this surface. The optical system includes aspheric and spherical mirrors aligned to focus at a first focal plane an image of the surface, and a mirror at this first focal plane which reflects light back on to the spherical mirror. This spherical mirror collimates the light and directs it through a prism which disperses it. The dispersed light is then focused on an array of light responsive elements disposed at a second focal plane. The prism is designed such that it disperses light into components of different wavelengths, with the components of shorter wavelengths being dispersed more than the components of longer wavelengths to present at the second focal plane a distribution pattern in which preselected groupings of the components are dispersed over essentially equal spacing intervals.