coudé focus

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Related to Coude Focus: Cassegrain focus, Reflecting telescopes

Coudé focus:

see telescopetelescope,
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coudé focus

(koo -day) See coudé telescope.

Coudé Focus


a term used to designate the optical system of a telescope in which converging light beams are reflected by one or more plane mirrors such that the focal plane remains fixed for any direction of the telescope's optical axis. Light beams are usually directed to the focal plane through a hollow polar axle. The coude focusing system is used in most large reflecting telescopes, thus making possible stationary mounting of large astronomical spectrographs. For English and German telescope mountings two plane mirrors are required; for American mountings one mirror can be used when observing stars close to the celestial equator, but three must be used for observations far from it.

coudé focus

[kü′dā ‚fō·kəs]
Focus achieved with a coudé telescope.