Optical design method of three-mirror anastigmatic (TMA) telescopes with curved image surface for astronomy applications

A systematic design method for three-mirror anastigmatic (TMA) telescopes with curved image surface is proposed in this paper. The initial structure parameters are solved analytically by the paraxial optical theory and Seidel aberration theory. On this basis, the design method is introduced. Two design examples for on-axis TMA telescope are conducted. One example is curved image surface for mitigate defocus during fine stabilization operations. The other example is curved image surface for configuration design with low misalignment sensitivities. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the design method.