The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 15, 1979
Filed:
Apr. 20, 1978
Claude L Emmerich, Scarsdale, NY (US);
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
An optical system such as an astronomical telescope must be carefully alid to assure that its optical axis is normal to its mounting or support surface. Alignment is achieved by forming circumferentially-spaced diffuse reflectors on the face of the vidicon and by illuminating only these individual reflectors plus a small surface area in their immediate vicinity. Light from the reflectors passes through the optics to a liquid pool for reflection back to the vidicon face plate. If the alignment is true, the reflected images form at fixed locations. In this regard, the locations of the vidicon reflectors are so arranged that the images fall on unilluminated surface areas. Scanning then detects both the reflectors (dark on bright) and the images (bright on dark). Deviations from the fixed image locations represent misalignments which can be corrected.