초록 ▼

An optical fiber telescope is disclosed as including an optical train having a plurality of tapered optical fibers arranged in a plurality of cascading stages. A collecting stage provides the aperture for the telescope and has an output for transmitting light to a terminal stage located downstream o

An optical fiber telescope is disclosed as including an optical train having a plurality of tapered optical fibers arranged in a plurality of cascading stages. A collecting stage provides the aperture for the telescope and has an output for transmitting light to a terminal stage located downstream of the collecting stage. The input of the terminal stage is optically coupled to the output of the collecting stage and provides the optical output for the telescope according to the invention. Further disclosed is a telescope-based tracking system incorporating tapered optical fiber telescopes in accordance with the present invention. Output light from each telescope of the system is received by a detecting device which generates a signal representative of information contained in the received light. This signal is applied to a determining device which, for example, determines the position of the object.

대표청구항 ▼

An optical fiber telescope for concentrating light for tracking without need for forming an image of an object tracked, said telescope comprising an optical train formed of a plurality of tapered optical fibers arranged in cascading stages with each stage having an input and output, said stages incl

An optical fiber telescope for concentrating light for tracking without need for forming an image of an object tracked, said telescope comprising an optical train formed of a plurality of tapered optical fibers arranged in cascading stages with each stage having an input and output, said stages including a collecting stage for collecting light in a field of view at its input and a terminal stage, located downstream of said collecting stage, with its input optically coupled to the output of said collecting stage for receiving collected light from said collecting stage and passing collected light through to the output thereof, the optical fibers of said collecting stage being arranged in at least one bundle, each upstream stage in said optical train having a greater number of tapered optical fibers than its adjacent downstream stage whereby said terminal stage provides concentrated light at its output without eyepiece or objective elements.