Improved Optical Correction for a Wider Field
Cody Nelson (B.S. 2018) is presenting work at the 2025 Photonics + Optics Conference of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) in San Diego. Cody presented a design for a new corrector for the prime focus camera on the 1.54-m Kuiper Catalina Sky Survey Telescope in Arizona. The Catalina Sky Survey watches the sky to identify near-Earth objects, asteroids with orbits that bring them into the vicinity of the Earth’s orbit and have the potential to impact the Earth.
Cody’s proposed corrector to the camera on the Kuiper telescope offers a 56’ field of view over a wide wavelength range. The corrector includes multiple lenses with spherical and planar surfaces to provide better image quality and throughput. And the best part – the telescope’s field of view will increase by a factor of four with the new corrector.
Cody currently works at the Steward Observatory - Richard F. Caris Mirror Laboratory as a Research Engineering Optical Fabrication Technician II and is a master’s student in Opto-Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arizona.
Cody at Work
The College of Arts