The characteristics of compound diffractive telescope.

Compound diffractive telescope is a new type of space optical system. It applies the structure of compound eyes into diffractive telescopes. With the help of diffractive optical element, the optical system could become lighter in weight, lower in cost, and looser in sensitivity to manufacturing tolerance. And with the help of compound eyes structure, the field of view is expanded. A demonstrated system of compound diffractive telescope is given. It is composed of one 50mm aperture primary diffractive lens and twenty-one eyepieces. The characteristics of the system are analysed by testing its star image and resolution. It is shown that the whole system can provide about diffraction limit imaging within 4.2 degree field of view.