Opto-Mechanical Systems Design, Third Edition (Optical Science and Engineering) 3rd Edition

There must be 100 books on optical design, some good, some naah, but none give sufficient mention of opto-mechanical aspects of design. This book is in a class all by itself - it is simply the best treatment of opto-mechanical topics in print, anywhere. Everyone in the field of optics that designs lenses to be manufactured, or integrates complete lens assemblies, should have this on their shelf. I've been a lens designer for 41 years now, and picked up a lot of experience over those decades learning that there's more to lens design than just ray bending. Paul's book covers the subject in detailed depth far beyond any treatment I've ever seen. Any young aspiring lens designer should have this as one of her/his main books in the personal library.

My husband needed this to brush up on his skills, says it's a pretty good book for doing that. He's trying to learn different software programs for designing opto-mechanical systems for use in getting better jobs. He's a freelance Senior opto-mechanical engineer.

This product was purchased to provide a mechanical engineer information regarding various optical components. The mechanical engineer found this book to be an immense help in understanding the needs of optical systems.Highly recommended.

A more accurate title for the book would be: "Design examples from optical systems for US military and aerospace applications, approximately 1950 to 1990, well-illustrated." Given this more accurate title, the book will be of interest to a few specialists.The core chapters of the book present examples of how various opto-mechanical design problems were solved in a variety of applications. Almost all the examples are taken from US military and aerospace designs, with a very few from industrial optics. The designs are well-illustrated with relevant drawings, with good reproduction. The book appears irrelevant to the design of modern industrial, commercial, and consumer optical systems.The book is not prescriptive. For the various design challenges described there is little information about what approaches might be considered or what tradeoffs are relevant. The book is primarily a sequence of examples. Each chapter refers to other books and papers, but these references are not organized to be of use to further learning by the reader.The core chapters of the book are:Chapter 4: mounting individual lenses, 72 pagesChapter 5: mounting multiple lenses, 72 pagesChapter 6: mounting windows and filters, 30 pagesChapter 7: designing and mounting prisms, 70 pagesChapter 8: design and mounting small, nonmetallic mirrors, gratings, and pellicles, 48 pagesChapters 9-13: large mirrors, 210 pagesNotice that the chapters on the design of large mirrors, primarily for astronomical and space-borne telescopes, are almost as long as the entire rest of the core chapters of the book on optical design.The non-core chapters of the book discuss more general topics. These are for the most part astonishingly poorly written and edited. I am amazed that a well-regarded organization such as the SPIE and a well-regarded publisher such as Taylor and Francis would print a book containing text of this quality. As a randomly-selected example, consider chapter 2 (environmental influences), section 2.2.2 (pressure). The paragraphs, in sequence, have the topics:1. Definition of pressure, including discussion of how the US customary unit of pressure measured in mm of mercury is derived.2. Statement of the pressure range to consider for optical instrument design, primarily in the atmosphere, but also space and pressurized spaces.3. Discussion of the atmosphere of the earth, approximate equation given for atmospheric pressure with distance units in US miles. Reference to graph of pressure vs. altitude (units in km), the range is for spacecraft design (to 10000 km). [Note: This mixing of units - even in a single paragraph - is common throughout the book. A discussion may use one set of units, a referenced equation a different set. Read the text very carefully before using any of the equations. Better yet, find a reliable book instead of this one.]4. Statement of problems encountered due to incorrect sealing of optical systems, allowing contaminants to enter during altitude changes.5. Statement of problems encountered due to pressures within optical systems caused by failure to vent during altitude changes.6. Statement of problems encountered due to outgassing at low pressures7. Statement of overpressure problems due to high-speed movement through air or water. Discussion of thermal problems resulting from this motion, mention of materials and coatings to reduce thermal stresses. [Note: This mixing of topics - even in a single paragraph - is very common. The writing frequently appears to be a first draft, before any organization or editing. Essential material on one topic will be buried in the middle of a paragraph on a completely different topic. Also notice the lack of prescriptive information - the text mentions coatings to reduce thermal problems, without any additional information.]8. Additional statement about pressure differential causing optical alignment errors due to mechanical deformation. This appears to be a continuation of the previous paragraph about high-speed movement, because the preceding paragraphs insisted the the optics must be vented, which would eliminate pressure differentials.9. Mention that atmospheric pressure changes can change the index of refraction of air, changing the optical properties. [Notice that this is a different issue, the previous paragraphs have discussed mechanical, rather than optical, issues. Also notice that no equation is given for the index of refraction of air as a function of pressure.]As you can see, this one section discusses venting, pressure differences due to altitude, pressure differences due to speed, thermal problems due to speed, and optical problems due to pressure differences and due to index of refraction changes. Only a few statements are useful for design, these are statements about venting optics, and the equation regarding pressure differences due to altitude (with the altitude measured in miles!)The core chapters themselves have their own oddities. For example, chapter 4 regarding mounting of individual lenses (one of the chapters I found useful) seems to be written assuming that the reader will obtain standard lenses, then grind the edges for mounting. Section 4.2 (considerations of centered optics) is mostly about how to mount optics in grinding equipment in order to obtain properly-aligned edges.While I found some individual sections of the book to be interesting and useful, all in all, I found the book to be a waste of money. The diagrams are very good, and make the text easy to understand. However, the vast majority of the text is useless. It is interesting to read about examples of some optical systems, but this does not help to design optics. The concentration on US military and aerospace optics of the mid-to-late 20th century is potentially of historical interest, but hardly of practical use. The lack of design information, poor organization, and unfocused writing, all make the book hard to use as a reference. The very poor presentation of equations and rather random collection of units in those equations make me distrust the little design information that is present.

Great book. As a Mechanical Engineer myself, I used it in a lot of my designs, and they turned out to be very accurate after manufacturing. I used it primarily as a reference for most of the engineering problems that I might have.