Patent ID: 8724216

Claim:
An optical operating system based on an optical lens system having an optical lens imager capable of a variable focal length configured with a reflective afocal of a like magnification, said optical operating system comprising the steps of: light enters the optical lens system via the reflective afocal; said light is first reflected off of a primary mirror, wherein said primary mirror is a concave parabolic off-axis mirror; said first reflected light is second reflected from a secondary mirror, wherein said secondary mirror is a convex off-axis parabolic mirror; said second reflected light from said secondary mirror is passed to a fold mirror; said light from said fold mirror is then reflected from a tertiary mirror, wherein said tertiary mirror is an off-axis concave parabolic mirror, and wherein there is an intermediate image plane between the fold mirror and the tertiary mirror; and said light reflected from said tertiary mirror is reflected off another fold mirror to be passed to said optical lens imager of a configured field of view, wherein said another fold mirror is disposed between the optical lens imager and the reflective afocal to achieve a compact optical operating system.