WO2022170951A1

WO2022170951A1 - Electronic eyepiece, eyepiece adapter, and telescope

Info

Publication number: WO2022170951A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/073445
Authority: WO
Inventors: 邱虹云
Original assignee: 光速视觉（北京）科技有限公司
Priority date: 2021-02-10
Filing date: 2022-01-24
Publication date: 2022-08-18
Also published as: CN112859322A

Abstract

An electronic eyepiece (10), an eyepiece adapter, and a telescope. The electronic eyepiece comprises a light combining lens (11), a relay lens (12), an optical eyepiece (13) and a microdisplay (14), which is disposed on one side of the light combining lens (11), wherein the relay lens (12) images an image formed by an objective of a telescope onto a target image plane (IM2); and the light combining lens (11) and the microdisplay (14) are arranged such that light from the objective of the telescope and light from the microdisplay (14) are mixed by means of the light combining lens (11) and enter the relay lens (12), and an image displayed by the microdisplay (14) is imaged onto the target image plane (IM2) by means of the relay lens (12). By arranging a relay lens (12) downstream of a light combining lens (11), the position of a real image plane to be observed by means of an optical eyepiece (13) is adjusted, such that the optical eyepiece (13) can use various existing eyepieces with different specifications and standardized interfaces, the adaptability of an apparatus is improved, and the cost is reduced.

Description

Electronic Eyepieces, Eyepiece Adapters and Telescopes

technical field

The present disclosure relates to the field of telescopes, and in particular to telescopes and electronic eyepieces and eyepiece adapters for telescopes.

Background technique

A telescope is an optical instrument that uses lenses or concave mirrors and other optics to observe distant objects. When observing with a telescope, light from distant objects is refracted by a lens or reflected by a concave mirror, condensed into an image, and then seen through an eyepiece with a certain magnification. For different observation objects, different observation conditions and observation purposes, people often need to replace telescope eyepieces, such as eyepieces with different magnifications or different filter functions. To meet the above requirements, telescope eyepieces have been formed into accessories with diverse specifications and standardized interfaces, which can be easily assembled on the telescope body and matched with the optical system of the telescope objective lens.

In recent years, people have begun to introduce augmented reality (AR, Augmented Reality) displays and mixed reality (MR, Mixed Reality) displays on telescopes, in which optical images obtained through the telescope objective lens and images such as electronic displays are mixed and output to the same optical path , which can finally be presented to the observer together, for example, through the eyepiece. Incorporating features such as augmented reality or mixed reality displays into telescopes requires modifications to the construction of the telescope and its accessories. How to maintain or even improve the optical and other performance of the telescope during such a transformation remains to be explored.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The purpose of the present disclosure is to provide a telescope and an electronic eyepiece and eyepiece adapter for the telescope, which improve the adaptability of the device while realizing a richer visual observation experience, which is beneficial to improve the flexibility of use and reduce the cost .

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic eyepiece for a telescope, the electronic eyepiece comprising a light combiner, a relay lens and an optical eyepiece sequentially arranged along an optical path, and a microdisplay arranged on one side of the light combiner, wherein The relay lens is arranged to relay imaging the image formed by the telescope objective onto the target image plane near the object-side focal plane of the optical eyepiece; and the combiner mirror and the microdisplay are arranged such that light from the telescope objective and light from the microdisplay Mixed via the combiner lens and into the relay lens, and the image displayed by the microdisplay is imaged onto the target image plane via the relay lens.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an eyepiece adapter for a telescope is provided, the eyepiece adapter includes a housing, one end of the housing is provided with an eyepiece interface for installing the eyepiece, and the other end is provided with a connector for connecting to a telescope barrel an object-end interface, wherein the eyepiece adapter further comprises a combining lens and a relay lens arranged in the housing and arranged in sequence along the optical path from the object-end interface to the eyepiece interface, and a microdisplay arranged on one side of the combining lens; The relay lens is arranged to relay imaging the image formed by the telescope objective onto the target image plane near the eyepiece interface; and the combiner lens and the microdisplay are arranged so that the light from the telescope objective and the light from the microdisplay are mixed via the combiner And enter the relay lens, and the image displayed by the microdisplay is imaged onto the target image plane via the relay lens.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a telescope including a lens barrel, an objective lens disposed in the lens barrel, and the electronic eyepiece as described above or the eyepiece adapter as described above mounted on the lens barrel.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, a telescope is provided, which includes a lens barrel and an objective lens installed in the lens barrel, the lens barrel is provided with an eyepiece interface, wherein the telescope further includes a lens barrel disposed in the lens barrel and extending along the direction from the objective lens to the lens barrel. The light path of the eyepiece interface is arranged in sequence with a combining mirror and a relay lens, and a microdisplay arranged on one side of the combining mirror; the objective lens forms a real image on the first real image plane; the relay lens is arranged to relay imaging on the first real image plane to the second real image plane near the eyepiece interface; and the light combiner is arranged downstream of the first real image plane, and the light combiner and the microdisplay are arranged such that the light from the telescope objective and the light from the microdisplay are mixed and combined via the light combiner. The relay lens is entered, and the image displayed by the microdisplay is imaged onto the second real image plane via the relay lens.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, a telescope is provided, which includes a lens barrel and an objective lens installed in the lens barrel, an eyepiece interface is provided on the lens barrel, and the telescope further includes a reflector and an image sensor. The reflector is a dichroic mirror, which is arranged in the optical path between the objective lens and the eyepiece interface, and selectively reflects and transmits according to the wavelength, so that visible light enters the visual observation optical path leading to the eyepiece interface, and at least part of the light is reflected and transmitted. The non-visible light enters the image sensor; and the image sensor receives the non-visible light from the dichroic mirror to detect the optical image formed through the objective lens.

According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, by providing the relay lens disposed downstream of the light combining lens, the position of the real image plane to be observed through the optical eyepiece is adjusted, so that the optical eyepiece can adopt various existing eyepieces with different specifications and standardized interfaces , which greatly improves the adaptation performance of the equipment and significantly reduces the cost.

Description of drawings

Other features, objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by reading the detailed description of non-limiting embodiments made with reference to the following drawings:

1 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic eyepiece and an eyepiece adapter according to Embodiment 1;

FIG. 2 schematically shows an example in which the aperture matching diaphragm is arranged in the relay lens;

3 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic eyepiece and an eyepiece adapter according to Embodiment 2;

4 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic eyepiece and an eyepiece adapter according to Embodiment 3;

5 is a schematic structural diagram of Example 1 of a telescope according to an embodiment of the present invention;

6 is a schematic structural diagram of Example 2 of a telescope according to an embodiment of the present invention;

7 is a schematic structural diagram of Example 3 of a telescope according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of Example 4 of a telescope according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of an example of a telescope according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

The present application will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain the related invention, but not to limit the invention. For the convenience of description, only the parts related to the invention are shown in the drawings.

It should be noted that the embodiments in the present application and the features of the embodiments may be combined with each other in the case of no conflict. The embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and in conjunction with the embodiments.

First, an electronic eyepiece 10 and an eyepiece adapter for a telescope according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be introduced with reference to FIG. 1 . FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of the electronic eyepiece 10 . As shown in FIG. 1 , the electronic eyepiece 10 includes a light combining mirror 11 , a relay lens 12 , an optical eyepiece 13 arranged in sequence in the optical path, and a microdisplay 14 arranged on one side of the light combining mirror 11 .

The relay lens 12 relays (relays) the image formed by the telescope objective lens (not shown in FIG. 1 ) (located on the objective mirror plane IM1 shown in the figure) to the target image plane IM2 near the object-side focal plane of the optical eyepiece 13 superior.

As shown in FIG. 1 , the combining mirror 11 and the microdisplay 14 are arranged such that the light from the telescope objective and the light from the microdisplay 14 are mixed and enter the relay lens 12 through reflection or transmission of the combining mirror 11 , respectively. Preferably, the light combining mirror 11 can be a light combining prism with a cubic shape, and the light combining mirror 11 and the microdisplay 14 can be arranged such that the objective mirror plane IM1 and the microdisplay 14 are respectively located at two mutually perpendicular sides of the light combining mirror 11 . on the side. The microdisplay 14 is preferably a flat panel display, and the microdisplay 14 can be attached to one surface of the light combining prism 11 . This is conducive to maintaining the positional relationship between the microdisplay 14 and the light combining mirror 11 simply and reliably, thereby improving the display effect.

It should be understood that as long as the light from the objective lens and the light from the microdisplay 14 can be mixed and fed into the relay lens 12 and the image displayed by the microdisplay 14 can be imaged onto the target image plane IM2 via the relay lens 12, the objective mirror image The positional relationship between the plane IM1 and the microdisplay 14 is not limited to being perpendicular to each other; according to the different light-combining mirrors used, the objective mirror plane IM1 and the microdisplay 14 may have other angular relationships, and the present invention is in this aspect. Unrestricted.

In the electronic eyepiece 10 according to the embodiment of the present invention, in order to enable the optical image of the telescope objective lens and the image displayed by the microdisplay to be observed together to realize mixed reality display, for example, the image plane IM1 of the telescope objective lens and the microdisplay 14 are in the optical path There should be an equivalent position so that the objective mirror plane IM1 is located upstream of the combining mirror 11 . The inventors of the present invention have found that, in the electronic eyepiece 10, the distance between the optical eyepiece 13 and the objective mirror plane IM1 must be increased to accommodate the light combiner 11 compared to a conventional telescope optical system or an eyepiece optical system without the addition of the light combiner 11. (The working distance of the traditional optical eyepiece is very small), in this case, the optical eyepiece 13 needs to have a longer working distance than the existing, standardized telescope eyepiece, so that the user can easily and clearly observe through the optical eyepiece 13 Image after lighting. In other words, the optical eyepiece 13 needs to be modified or even customized due to the addition of the combining lens. This is extremely inconvenient and costly.

Therefore, the inventor of the present invention proposes to add a relay lens 12 between the combining lens 11 and the optical eyepiece 13 . As already introduced above, the relay lens 12 relays the image formed by the telescope objective lens (located on the objective mirror plane IM1 shown in the figure) to the target image plane IM2 near the object-side focal plane of the optical eyepiece 13. The image displayed by the display 14 is imaged onto the target image plane IM2. Here, the position of the object-side focal plane of the optical eyepiece 13 can be determined, for example, according to the position of the object-side focal plane of an existing optical eyepiece with a standard interface. Therefore, in the electronic eyepiece according to the embodiment of the present invention, the optical eyepiece 13 can adopt various existing eyepieces with different specifications and standardized interfaces, which greatly improves the adaptability of the device and significantly reduces the cost.

In addition, compared with the solution of disposing the relay lens between the microdisplay and the light combining lens, the electronic eyepiece according to the embodiment of the present invention has a more compact structure, and it is easier to realize the optical image of the telescope objective lens and the image displayed by the microdisplay the overlap.

In addition, the inventors of the present invention also found that the optical image from the telescope objective lens (the image formed by the telescope objective lens) has a small exit angle/aperture angle of light. At the same time, the existing displays that can be used as the microdisplay 14 include, for example, LCD displays, OLED displays, etc., the light exit angle of the image displayed by these displays is much larger than the light exit angle of the image of the telescope objective lens. . The magnitudes of the light exit angles are different, resulting in different angular ranges in which the corresponding images/images can be observed. When the user moves the eye relative to the optical eyepiece in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis to change the viewing angle, the user can only see the optical image from the objective within a small range of angles, but can see the optical image from the objective within a relatively much larger The image displayed by the microdisplay is always seen within the angular range, so that the user cannot always observe the optical image from the objective lens and the image from the microdisplay at the same time, reducing the realism of the mixed reality display and/or augmented reality display. sense.

To this end, preferably, the electronic eyepiece according to the embodiment of the present invention may further include a diaphragm 15 for aperture matching, and the diaphragm 15 for aperture matching is used to reduce the aperture angle of the image displayed by the microdisplay 14 to the same size as that displayed by the telescope. The aperture angle of the image/optical image formed by the objective lens is substantially the same, thereby enabling the user to view the optical image from the objective lens and the image from the microdisplay simultaneously without the image from the microdisplay being presented alone. Preferably, the aperture matching diaphragm 15 is provided in the relay lens 12 .

More preferably, as shown in FIG. 2 , the relay lens 12 may include a plurality of lenses, and the plurality of lenses may include a lens (hereinafter referred to as “upstream lens” for convenience) 12a located upstream of the aperture matching stop 15 , and the aperture matching diaphragm 15 is arranged on the predetermined plane FP of the upstream lens 12a, so that the aperture angles of points at different positions on the image displayed by the microdisplay 14 are substantially the same. Here, the predetermined plane FP is a plane in which light rays incident on the upstream lens at the same angle converge to substantially the same point on the predetermined plane after being refracted by the upstream lens. In order to more clearly show the limiting effect of the aperture matching diaphragm 15 set in this way on the light exit angle, FIG. 2 exemplarily shows the on-axis point A and the off-axis point B on the objective mirror plane IM1 to the point where they are in The ray diagram of the image points A', B' on the target image plane IM2. The microdisplay 14 is located on the optical path position equivalent to the objective mirror plane IM1, so the image displayed by the microdisplay 14 can be considered to be located on the image plane IM1. Fig. 2 shows that the on-axis point A and the off-axis point B on the image plane IM1 emit divergent rays respectively, wherein the dotted line represents the light rays with the same upward opening angle from the point A and the point B, and the dot-dash line represents the light from the point A The same ray as the downward angle of point B. Since the dotted lines have the same angle of incidence with respect to the upstream lens 12a, they converge to a point, ie, point P1, _on the predetermined plane FP of the upstream lens 12a. Similarly, the dot-dash line also converges to a point, ie, point P ₂ , on the predetermined plane FP of the upstream lens 12a. By arranging the diaphragm 15 on the predetermined plane FP of the upstream lens 12a, the light exit angle of points at different positions on the image plane IM1 can have the same limiting effect, so that the image displayed by the microdisplay 14 has different positions at different positions. The light exit opening angles of the points are substantially the same.

In order to conveniently set the aperture matching diaphragm 15, preferably, the relay lens 12 is configured such that the predetermined plane FP of the upstream lens 12a is located on the lens surface or in the space between the lenses. The aperture matching diaphragm 15 may be an additionally provided light shielding element, and may also be formed, for example, as a part of a lens, such as a light shielding layer coated on the surface of the lens, and the like; the present invention is not limited in this respect.

Referring back to FIG. 1 , the electronic eyepiece 10 according to the embodiment of the present invention may include a housing 10a in which the light combining lens 11 , the relay lens 12 and the microdisplay 14 may be disposed. One end of the housing 10a may be provided with an object interface 10b for connecting with the telescope barrel. Although the terminal interface 10b is shown as a portion protruding from the housing 10a in the figures, this is merely exemplary and schematic. The electronic eyepiece according to the embodiment of the present invention is not limited to the specific shape and structure of the object terminal interface 10b. For example, in some cases, a part of the outer surface of the housing 10a may be formed as the object terminal for connecting with the telescope barrel. interface 10b.

In some implementations, the optical eyepiece 13 may be directly and fixedly assembled on the housing 10a to form an integrated electronic eyepiece 10 . In other implementations, the other end of the housing 10a may be provided with an eyepiece interface 10c for receiving the optical eyepiece 13, and the eyepiece interface 10c is preferably a standard eyepiece interface.

In an implementation in which the electronic eyepiece according to the embodiment of the present invention includes the eyepiece interface 10c for receiving the optical eyepiece 13, the part of the electronic eyepiece other than the optical eyepiece 13 constitutes the eyepiece adapter according to the embodiment of the present invention. Specifically, the eyepiece adapter for a telescope according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention may include a housing 10a, one end of the housing 10a is provided with an eyepiece interface 10c for installing the eyepiece, and the other end is provided with a connector for connecting to the telescope barrel The object end interface 10b, and the eyepiece adapter also includes a combining lens 11 and a relay lens 12 arranged in the housing 10a and arranged in sequence along the optical path from the object end interface 10b to the eyepiece interface 10c, and a combining lens 11 the side of the microdisplay 14. In the eyepiece adapter according to the embodiment of the present invention, the relay lens 12 is arranged to relay the image formed by the telescope objective lens (located on the objective mirror plane IM1 shown in FIG. 1 ) to the target image plane IM2 near the eyepiece interface 10c; The light mirror 11 and the microdisplay 14 are arranged such that the light from the telescope objective lens and the light from the microdisplay 14 are mixed via the light combiner 11 and enter the relay lens 12 , and the image displayed by the microdisplay 14 is imaged via the relay lens 12 onto the target image plane IM2.

The eyepiece adapter according to the embodiment of the present invention can be used with optical eyepieces of different specifications, and provides the beneficial technical effects as described above in conjunction with the electronic eyepiece, which will not be repeated here.

Next, the electronic eyepiece 10' and the eyepiece adapter according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 3 . FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of the electronic eyepiece 10'. The electronic eyepiece 10 ′ according to the second embodiment of the present invention has basically the same structure as the electronic eyepiece 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the main difference is that the electronic eyepiece 10 ′ further includes a dichroic beam splitter 16 and an image sensor 18. According to the present embodiment, the dichroic beam splitter 16 is arranged in the optical path traveled by the light from the telescope objective and is located upstream of the optical eyepiece 13 . Preferably, as shown in FIG. 3 , the dichroic beam splitter 16 is disposed between the relay lens 12 and the optical eyepiece 13 . According to the second embodiment, the dichroic beam splitter 16 is used for selective reflection and transmission according to wavelength, wherein the visible light is transmitted into the optical path leading to the optical eyepiece 13/eyepiece interface 10c, and the reflection of at least part of the invisible light is made into the image sensor 17 . The image sensor 17 receives the invisible light to detect the optical image formed by the telescope objective. Preferably, the dichroic beam splitter 16 allows infrared light to enter the image sensor 17 .

As shown in FIG. 3 , the electronic eyepiece 10 ′ may further include a processing unit 18 that receives the optical image detected by the image sensor 17 and generates a virtual image to be displayed by the microdisplay 14 based on the optical image.

Since the spectrum of the light emitted by the microdisplay 14 basically does not include infrared light, the infrared light separated by the dichroic beam splitter 16 basically originates from the optical image obtained by the objective lens of the telescope. The image sensor 17 detects the infrared light from the dichroic beam splitter 16 to obtain an infrared image, and the processing unit 18 generates an image to be displayed by the microdisplay 14 based on the infrared image. In this way, on the one hand, since the human eye is not sensitive to infrared light, the infrared light splitting from the optical image of the objective lens does not affect the brightness and color of the optical image observed through the optical eyepiece 13; on the other hand, The acquired infrared image can be used to generate a virtual image displayed in conjunction with the optical image from the objective lens, which is beneficial to improve the registration degree between the optical image and the virtual image.

In some implementations, the processing unit 18 performs star point identification (also referred to as star map identification) based on the optical image detected by the image sensor 17, for example, so as to obtain the orientation of the telescope in real time. The virtual image may be, for example, an image retrieved from an existing astronomical image library according to the real-time orientation of the telescope. The retrieved image is preferably cropped and trimmed according to the field of view of the telescope. Alternatively or in addition, the virtual image may include information about star points, constellations, nebulae, etc. currently observed by the telescope, obtained from the real-time orientation of the telescope, thereby providing augmented reality when superimposed with the optical imagery from the telescope objective show. Alternatively or additionally, the virtual image may be an image obtained by rendering the optical image detected by the image sensor (eg, by assigning different colors, increasing brightness, etc.).

Similarly, it can be understood that the eyepiece adapter according to the second embodiment of the present invention has substantially the same structure as the eyepiece adapter according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the difference is that the former further includes the dichroic beam splitting set as described above The mirror 16 and the image sensor 17, and may further include the processing unit 18 introduced above, which will not be repeated here.

4 is a schematic structural diagram of the electronic eyepiece 10 ″ and the eyepiece adapter according to the third embodiment of the present invention. The electronic eyepiece 10 ″ and the eyepiece adapter according to the third embodiment of the present invention and the electronic eyepiece 10 ′ and the eyepiece adapter according to the second embodiment of the present invention Having substantially the same configuration, the main difference is that, according to the third embodiment, the dichroic beam splitter 16 reflects visible light into the optical path leading to the optical eyepiece 13/eyepiece interface 10c, and transmits at least part of the non-visible light to make it. into the image sensor 17 .

In addition, as shown in FIG. 4 , the electronic eyepiece 10 ″ and the eyepiece adapter according to the third embodiment of the present invention may include, in addition to the same processing unit 18 as the electronic eyepiece 10 ′, a microdisplay driver 19 . The microdisplay driver 19 Connected to the processing unit 18 and the microdisplay 14 for driving the microdisplay 14 to display the virtual image generated by the processing unit 18 .

The electronic eyepiece and the eyepiece adapter according to the embodiments of the present invention are described above with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4 . A telescope according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 5 to 8 .

According to the embodiments of the present invention, a method is also provided for easier understanding,

Fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of Example 1 (the telescope 100) of the telescope according to the embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5 , the telescope 100 includes a lens barrel 20 , an objective lens 30 disposed in the lens barrel 20 , and the electronic eyepiece or eyepiece adapter according to the embodiment of the present invention as described above mounted on the lens barrel 20 . Although FIG. 5 shows that the telescope 100 includes the electronic eyepiece 10 or the eyepiece adapter according to the first embodiment of the present invention, it should be understood that the telescope 100 may also include the electronic eyepiece or eyepiece adapter according to other embodiments of the present invention. It should also be understood that although the optical axis of the optical eyepiece 13/eyepiece interface 10a and the objective lens 30 in the telescope 100 shown in FIG. 5 are coaxial, it should be understood that they may also be arranged perpendicular to each other, and the present invention is not subject to this aspect. limit. In addition, although the objective lens 30 is shown in the form of a lens in FIG. 5 , the objective lens 30 in the telescope 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention may also be in the form of a concave mirror.

FIG. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a second example of a telescope (telescope 100A) according to an embodiment of the present invention. Different from the electronic eyepiece in the telescope 100 shown in FIG. 5 that is connected to the telescope barrel 20 through an interface, in the example shown in FIG. Incorporated into the lens barrel 20 .

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 6 , the telescope 100A includes a lens barrel 20 and an objective lens 30 installed in the lens barrel 20 , and the lens barrel 20 is provided with an eyepiece interface 10 a. The telescope 100A further includes a combining lens 11 and a relay lens 12 disposed in the lens barrel 20 and sequentially arranged along the optical path from the objective lens 30 to the eyepiece interface 10c, and a microdisplay 14 disposed on one side of the combining lens 11 . The objective lens 30 forms a real image on the image plane (ie, the first real image plane) IM1, and the relay lens 12 relays and images the objective image plane IM1 onto the target image plane (ie, the second real image plane) IM2 near the eyepiece interface 10c. The light combiner 11 is disposed downstream of the image plane IM1 , the light from the objective lens 30 and the light from the microdisplay 14 are mixed via the light combiner 11 and enter the relay lens 12 , and the image displayed by the microdisplay 14 passes through the relay lens 12 Also imaged onto the target image plane IM2.

The telescope barrel has a large space, and by combining the combiner lens and the relay lens into the barrel, an integrated and compact structure can be achieved, which is easy to use. The user can control whether to display mixed reality and/or augmented reality by turning the microdisplay on/off.

Preferably, as shown in FIG. 6 , the telescope 100A further includes a diaphragm 15 for aperture matching. The aperture matching diaphragm 15 is preferably provided in the relay lens 12 for reducing the aperture angle of the image displayed by the microdisplay 14 to be substantially the same as the aperture angle of the image formed by the objective lens 30 . The relay lens 12 may include a plurality of lenses including an upstream lens 12a located upstream of the aperture matching diaphragm 15 along the optical path; preferably, the aperture matching diaphragm 15 is arranged on a predetermined plane of the upstream lens 12a, The aperture angles of points at different positions on the image displayed by the microdisplay 14 are made substantially the same. Here, the predetermined plane FP is a plane in which light rays incident on the upstream lens at the same angle converge to substantially the same point on the predetermined plane after being refracted by the upstream lens.

FIG. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a third example of a telescope (telescope 100B) according to an embodiment of the present invention. The telescope 100B shown in FIG. 7 has basically the same structure as the telescope 100A shown in FIG. 6 , the main difference is that the optical axes of the optical eyepiece 13/eyepiece interface 10a and the objective lens 30 in the telescope 100B are arranged perpendicular to each other.

Although the objective lens 30 is shown as a lens in FIG. 7 , the telescope 100B may also be a reflecting telescope, wherein the objective lens 30 includes a primary mirror composed of a concave mirror. In this case, the light combining mirror 11 is used as a secondary mirror in the objective lens of the reflecting telescope, which is beneficial to simplify the structure and reduce the external dimension of the telescope. It should be noted that, at this time, the combining mirror 11 and the objective lens 30 are aligned along the optical axis of the objective lens, and the objective mirror plane IM1 is perpendicular to the optical axis of the objective lens, which is significantly different from the position of the objective mirror plane in the existing reflecting telescope. of.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 7 , the telescope 100B may further include a dichroic beam splitter 16 and an image sensor 17 . The dichroic beam splitter 16 may be disposed between the combining lens 11 and the eyepiece interface 10c. In the example shown in FIG. 7, the dichroic beam splitter 16 is provided between the relay lens 12 and the eyepiece interface 10c. In some cases, the dichroic beam splitter 16 may be disposed between the combining mirror 11 and the relay lens 12 . In other cases, the relay lens 12 includes a plurality of lenses, and the dichroic beam splitter 16 may also be disposed between two of the lenses of the relay lens 12 .

The dichroic beam splitter 16 receives the light mixed by the light combiner 11, selectively reflects and transmits it according to the wavelength, so that visible light enters the optical path leading to the eyepiece interface 10c, and at least part of the non-visible light enters the image sensor 17 . The image sensor 17 receives invisible light from the dichroic beam splitter 16 to detect the optical image formed through the objective lens 30 . The dichroic beam splitter 16 preferably allows infrared light to enter the image sensor 17 . As shown in FIG. 7 , the telescope 100B may further include a processing unit 18 and a microdisplay driver 19 , the working methods of which are the same as those described above in conjunction with the electronic eyepiece and the eyepiece adapter, and will not be repeated here.

FIG. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a fourth example of a telescope (telescope 100C) according to an embodiment of the present invention. The telescope 100C shown in FIG. 8 is a Newtonian reflecting telescope, and its objective lens 30 includes a primary mirror 30a composed of a concave mirror and a secondary mirror 30b composed of a flat mirror. The secondary mirror (mirror) 30b is arranged to reflect at least part of the light from the objective lens 30 towards the combiner mirror 11 , thereby positioning the objective mirror plane IM1 at the first side of the combiner mirror 11 . The microdisplay 14 is arranged on the second side surface of the light combining mirror 11, which is perpendicular to the first side surface.

In the preferred implementation shown in Figure 8, the secondary mirror 30b consists of a dichroic mirror and acts as the dichroic beamsplitter 16 as described above. Specifically, the secondary mirror 30b reflects visible light and transmits at least part of the invisible light; and the telescope 100C further includes an image sensor 17 disposed downstream of the secondary mirror along the transmission direction of the secondary mirror 30b, and the image sensor 17 receives the non-visible light transmitted by the secondary mirror 30b. visible light to detect the optical image formed through the objective lens 30 . As shown in FIG. 8 , the telescope 100C may further include a processing unit 18 and a microdisplay driver 19 , which work in the same manner as the processing unit 18 and the microdisplay driver 19 described above, and will not be repeated here.

It should be understood that the telescope 100C may also be other types of reflecting telescopes, having a primary mirror composed of concave mirrors, and is not limited to a Newtonian reflecting telescope.

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of an example of a telescope (telescope 200 ) according to another embodiment of the present invention. According to this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 9 , the telescope 200 includes a lens barrel 20 and an objective lens 30 installed in the lens barrel 20 . The lens barrel 20 is provided with an eyepiece interface 10 c for receiving the eyepiece 13 . Telescope 200 also includes mirror 16 and image sensor 17 . The reflector 16 is a dichroic mirror, which is arranged in the optical path between the objective lens 30 and the eyepiece interface 10c/optical eyepiece 13, and selectively reflects and transmits according to the wavelength, so that visible light enters the path leading to the eyepiece interface 10c/optical eyepiece At least part of the non-visible light is allowed to enter the image sensor 17 in the visual observation optical path of 13 . Image sensor 17 receives invisible light from dichroic mirror 16 to detect an optical image formed via objective lens 30 . Preferably, the dichroic beam splitter 16 allows infrared light to enter the image sensor 17 .

According to this embodiment, on the one hand, since the human eye is not sensitive to non-visible light, the non-visible light is split from the optical image of the objective lens and does not affect the brightness and color of the optical image observed through the optical eyepiece 13; On the one hand, the existing technology has allowed the use of image sensors to detect optical images of non-visible light, especially, for example, CMOS sensors are very sensitive to infrared light. Observations for additional functionality and assistance.

Compared with a telescope that uses dichroic spectroscopy to separate visible light for imaging and infrared light to guide stars, the telescope 200 according to this embodiment combines dichroic spectroscopy with a visual system (optical eyepiece) It is more reasonable to use, because the human eye itself is not sensitive to non-visible light, and infrared imaging is a very important function when observing celestial objects through equipment such as cameras.

As shown in FIG. 9 , the telescope 200 may further include a processing unit 18 , and the processing unit 18 receives the optical image detected by the image sensor 17 and performs image processing. In some implementations, the processing unit 18 performs star point recognition based on the optical image detected by the image sensor 17 to obtain the real-time orientation of the telescope, and uses the real-time orientation to determine or calibrate the positioning of the telescope 200 , for example, the process of the telescope 200 to find stars Navigation is provided in .

In other implementations, the processing unit 18 generates a virtual image based on the optical imagery detected by the image sensor 17 . The virtual image may be, for example, an image retrieved from an existing astronomical image library according to the real-time orientation of the telescope obtained by the processing unit 18 through star point recognition. The retrieved image is preferably cropped and trimmed according to the field of view of the telescope. Alternatively or in addition, the virtual image may include information about star points, constellations, nebulae, etc. currently observed by the telescope, obtained from the real-time orientation of the telescope, thereby providing augmented reality when superimposed with the optical imagery from the telescope objective show. Alternatively or additionally, the virtual image may be an image obtained by rendering the optical image detected by the image sensor (eg, by assigning different colors, increasing brightness, etc.). The virtual image may be transmitted to a device outside the telescope 200 for display to the user, or may be displayed to the user through a light combiner and a microdisplay further included in the telescope 200 . In the latter case, the configuration of the telescope 200 is similar to that of the telescope 100C shown in FIG. 8 , wherein the combiner 11 is arranged in the optical path between the reflector 16 and the eyepiece interface 10c, and the combiner 11 and the microdisplay 14 are arranged such that The light from the mirror 16 and the light from the microdisplay 14 are mixed via the light combiner and sent into the visual observation optical path, and the microdisplay 14 is driven to display a virtual image.

In the example shown in FIG. 9 , the telescope 200 is a Newtonian reflection telescope, and the objective lens 30 thereof includes a primary mirror 30 a composed of a concave mirror, and the mirror 16 constitutes a secondary mirror 30 b in the objective lens 30 . It should be understood that this is only an example, and the telescope 200 according to the present embodiment is not limited to a reflection type telescope, but can also be implemented as a transmission type telescope; the present invention is not limited in this respect.

The eyepiece interface in the telescope according to the embodiment of the present invention is preferably a standard interface.

It should be noted that the various structures shown in the drawings of the present application are not drawn according to the size ratio, the relative positional relationship of each optical element is mainly expressed when drawing, and the shapes and positions of other structures are only schematic.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present application and an illustration of the applied technical principles. Those skilled in the art should understand that the scope of the invention involved in this application is not limited to the technical solution formed by the specific combination of the above-mentioned technical features, and should also cover the above-mentioned technical features without departing from the inventive concept. Other technical solutions formed by any combination of its equivalent features. For example, a technical solution is formed by replacing the above-mentioned features with the technical features disclosed in this application (but not limited to) with similar functions.

Claims

An electronic eyepiece for a telescope, comprising a light combining mirror, a relay lens and an optical eyepiece arranged in sequence along an optical path, and a microdisplay arranged on one side of the light combining mirror, wherein,

the relay lens is arranged to relay imaging the image formed by the telescope objective onto the target image plane near the object-side focal plane of the optical eyepiece; and

The light combiner and the microdisplay are arranged such that the light from the telescope objective and the light from the microdisplay are mixed via the light combiner and enter the relay lens, and the image displayed by the microdisplay is imaged onto the target image plane via the relay lens.
The electronic eyepiece according to claim 1, further comprising a diaphragm for aperture matching, the diaphragm for aperture matching is arranged in the relay lens, and is used for reducing the aperture angle of the image displayed by the microdisplay is substantially the same as the aperture angle of the image formed by the telescope objective.
3. The electronic eyepiece of claim 2, wherein the relay lens includes a plurality of lenses including an upstream lens located upstream of the aperture matching aperture along the optical path, the aperture matching aperture is arranged on a predetermined plane of the upstream lens, so that the aperture angles of points at different positions on the image displayed by the microdisplay are substantially the same, wherein the light rays incident on the upstream lens at the same angle are refracted by the upstream lens converge to substantially the same point on the predetermined plane.
4. The electronic eyepiece of claim 3, wherein the relay lens is configured such that the predetermined plane of the upstream lens is located on a lens surface or in a space between lenses.
The electronic eyepiece of claim 1, wherein the microdisplay is a flat-panel display, the light combiner is a prism having a cubic shape, and the microdisplay is arranged to fit on one surface of the prism .
The electronic eyepiece of claim 1, further comprising a housing in which the microdisplay, the light combiner and the relay lens are disposed, the optical eyepiece is mounted on one end of the housing, and The other end of the casing is provided with an object interface for connecting to the lens barrel of the telescope.
The electronic eyepiece of any one of claims 1-6, further comprising a dichroic beam splitter and an image sensor, wherein,

The dichroic beamsplitter is positioned in the light path traveled by the light from the telescope objective and upstream of the optical eyepiece, which selectively reflects and transmits according to wavelength, allowing visible light to enter the optical eyepiece leading to the optical eyepiece. into the light path so that at least part of the non-visible light enters the image sensor;

The image sensor receives the invisible light to detect the optical image formed by the telescope objective.
8. The electronic eyepiece of claim 7, further comprising a processing unit that receives an optical image detected by the image sensor and generates an image to be displayed by the microdisplay based on the optical image.
8. The electronic eyepiece of claim 7, wherein the dichroic beam splitter allows infrared light to enter the sensor detection light path.
9. The electronic eyepiece of claim 9, wherein the dichroic beam splitter is disposed between the relay lens and the optical eyepiece.
An eyepiece adapter for a telescope, the eyepiece adapter comprises a casing, one end of the casing is provided with an eyepiece interface for installing the eyepiece, and the other end is provided with an object-connecting end interface for connecting to a telescope barrel, wherein

The eyepiece adapter further includes a combining lens and a relay lens arranged in the housing and arranged in sequence along the optical path from the object end interface to the eyepiece interface, and a combining lens and a relay lens arranged on one side of the combining lens. Microdisplay;

the relay lens is configured to relay imaging the image formed by the telescope objective onto the target image plane near the eyepiece interface; and

The light combiner and the microdisplay are arranged such that the light from the telescope objective and the light from the microdisplay are mixed via the light combiner and enter the relay lens, and the image displayed by the microdisplay is imaged onto the target image plane via the relay lens.
The eyepiece adapter according to claim 11, further comprising a diaphragm for aperture matching, the diaphragm for aperture matching is arranged in the relay lens, and is used for reducing the aperture angle of the image displayed by the microdisplay is substantially the same as the aperture angle of the image formed by the telescope objective.
13. The eyepiece adapter of claim 12, wherein the relay lens includes a plurality of lenses including an upstream lens located along the optical path upstream of the aperture matching diaphragm, the aperture matching diaphragm is arranged on a predetermined plane of the upstream lens, so that the aperture angles of points at different positions on the image displayed by the microdisplay are substantially the same, wherein the light rays incident on the upstream lens at the same angle are refracted by the upstream lens converge to substantially the same point on the predetermined plane.
The eyepiece adapter of any one of claims 11-13, further comprising a dichroic beamsplitter and an image sensor, wherein,

The dichroic beamsplitter is positioned in the optical path traveled by the light from the telescope objective and upstream of the eyepiece interface, which selectively reflects and transmits according to wavelength, allowing visible light to enter the optical path leading to the eyepiece interface. into the light path so that at least a portion of the non-visible light enters the image sensor; and

The image sensor receives the invisible light to detect the optical image formed by the telescope objective.
15. The eyepiece adapter of claim 14, further comprising a processing unit that receives the optical imagery detected by the image sensor and generates an image to be displayed by the microdisplay based on the optical imagery.
15. The eyepiece adapter of claim 14, wherein the dichroic beamsplitter is disposed between the relay lens and the eyepiece interface.
A telescope, comprising a lens barrel, an objective lens arranged in the lens barrel, and the electronic eyepiece as described in any one of claims 1-10 or as in claims 11-16 mounted on the lens barrel The eyepiece adapter of any one.
A telescope, comprising a lens barrel and an objective lens installed in the lens barrel, the lens barrel is provided with an eyepiece interface, wherein,

The telescope further comprises a combining mirror and a relay lens arranged in the lens barrel and sequentially arranged along the optical path from the objective lens to the eyepiece interface, and a microdisplay arranged on one side of the combining mirror;

the objective lens forms a real image on the first real image plane;

the relay lens is configured to relay imaging the first real image plane onto a second real image plane near the eyepiece interface; and

The light combiner is disposed downstream of the first real image plane, and the light combiner and the microdisplay are arranged such that light from the telescope objective and light from the microdisplay are mixed via the light combiner and combined. into the relay lens, and the image displayed by the microdisplay is imaged onto the second real image plane via the relay lens.
The telescope of claim 18, wherein the objective lens includes a primary mirror consisting of a concave mirror.
The telescope of claim 19, wherein the telescope is a Newtonian reflecting telescope.
21. The telescope of claim 20, wherein the light combining mirror and the objective lens are aligned along an optical axis of the objective lens, and the first real image plane is perpendicular to the optical axis of the objective lens.
19. The telescope of claim 18, further comprising a mirror disposed between the objective lens and the combiner mirror, the mirror arranged to reflect at least a portion of the light from the objective lens toward the combiner mirror , so that the first real image plane is positioned at the first side surface of the light combining mirror, and the microdisplay is disposed on the second side surface of the light combining mirror that is perpendicular to the first side surface.
The telescope of any one of claims 18-22, wherein the eyepiece interface is a standard interface.
The telescope of any one of claims 18-21, further comprising a dichroic beamsplitter and an image sensor, wherein,

The dichroic beam splitter is arranged between the light combining mirror and the eyepiece interface, it receives the light mixed by the light combining mirror, and selectively reflects and transmits according to the wavelength, so that the visible light enters the channel leading to the optical fiber. in the optical path of the eyepiece interface, so that at least part of the non-visible light enters the image sensor;

The image sensor receives invisible light from the dichroic mirror to detect an optical image formed through the objective lens.
23. The telescope of claim 22, wherein the mirror is a dichroic mirror that reflects visible light and transmits at least a portion of invisible light; and

The telescope further includes an image sensor disposed downstream of the mirror along the transmission direction of the mirror, and receiving the invisible light transmitted by the mirror to detect the optical image formed through the objective lens.
25. The telescope of claim 24 or 25, further comprising a processing unit that receives an optical image detected by the image sensor, generates a virtual image based on the optical image, and the microdisplay is driven to display the virtual image .
27. The telescope of claim 26, further comprising a microdisplay driver connected to the processing unit and the microdisplay and driving the microdisplay to display the virtual image.
The telescope according to claim 24 or 25, further comprising a processing unit, which receives the optical image detected by the image sensor, and performs star point recognition based on the optical image, thereby obtaining the orientation of the telescope in real time.
The telescope according to any one of claims 18 to 22, further comprising a diaphragm for aperture matching, the diaphragm for aperture matching is arranged in the relay lens, and is used for displaying the image displayed by the microdisplay. The aperture angle of the image is reduced to be substantially the same as the aperture angle of the image formed by the objective.
29. The telescope of claim 29, wherein the relay lens includes a plurality of lenses including an upstream lens located upstream of the aperture matching aperture along the optical path, the aperture matching aperture set On a predetermined plane of the upstream lens, the aperture angles of points at different positions on the image displayed by the microdisplay are substantially the same, wherein light rays incident on the upstream lens at the same angle converge after being refracted by the upstream lens to substantially the same point on the predetermined plane.
A telescope, comprising a lens barrel and an objective lens installed in the lens barrel, the lens barrel is provided with an eyepiece interface, the telescope further includes a reflector and an image sensor, wherein,

The reflecting mirror is a dichroic mirror, which is arranged in the optical path between the objective lens and the eyepiece interface, and selectively reflects and transmits according to the wavelength, so that visible light enters the visual field leading to the eyepiece interface. into the viewing light path such that at least a portion of the non-visible light enters the image sensor; and

The image sensor receives invisible light from the dichroic mirror to detect an optical image formed through the objective lens.
The telescope of claim 31, further comprising a processing unit that receives an optical image detected by the image sensor, and generates a virtual image based on the optical image;

The telescope also includes a light combining mirror and a microdisplay arranged on one side of the light combining mirror, the light combining mirror is arranged in the optical path between the reflector and the eyepiece interface, the light combining mirror and the The microdisplay is arranged such that light from the mirror and light from the microdisplay are mixed via the light combiner and sent into the visual observation light path, and the microdisplay is driven to display the virtual image.
The telescope according to claim 31, further comprising a processing unit, which receives the optical image detected by the image sensor, and performs star point recognition based on the optical image, thereby obtaining the orientation of the telescope in real time.