Dmitry Dmitrievich Maksutov | |
|---|---|
 Maksutov in 1916 | |
| Born | 23 April [O.S. 11 April] 1896 Nikolayev orOdesa, Russian Empire |
| Died | 12 August 1964(1964-08-12) (aged 68) Leningrad, Soviet Union |
| Occupation(s) | Optical engineer,Amateur astronomer |
| Known for | Inventor of theMaksutov telescope |
Dmitry Dmitrievich Maksutov (Russian:Дми́трий Дми́триевич Максу́тов; 23 April [O.S. 11 April] 1896 – 12 August 1964) was aSovietoptical engineer andamateur astronomer. He is best known as the inventor of theMaksutov telescope.
Dmitry Dmitriyevich Maksutov was born in 1896 in either Nikolayev[1] or the port city ofOdesa,Russian Empire.[1][2] His father, was a naval officer serving with theBlack Sea Fleet, who came from a family with a long and distinguished naval tradition. His great-grandfather, Peter Ivanovich Maksutov, was given the title of prince, thereby raising the family to hereditary nobility as a reward for bravery in combat. His grandfather,Dmitri Petrovich Maksutov, was the last Russian governor ofRussian Alaska, before it was purchased by theUnited States in 1867.
Dmitri became interested in astronomy in early childhood, and constructed his first telescope (a 7.2 inch / 180 mmreflector) when he was twelve years old. Later he read publications by the Russian optician Alexander Andreevich Chikin (1865–1924), who became his teacher. He constructed a much better 10 inch (210 mm) reflector and began serious astronomical observation. At 15 years of age he had already been accepted as a member of the Russian Astronomical Society. Three years later he graduated from the MilitaryNikolayev Engineering Institute in what was thenPetrograd (a.k.a.Saint Petersburg, Russia), now theSaint Petersburg Military Engineering-Technical University. Between 1921 and 1930 he worked at the Physics Institute of theUniversity of Odessa in the field of astronomical optics.
In 1930 Maksutov established the Laboratory of Astronomical Optics at theState Optical Institute ofLeningrad and led it until 1952. This laboratory was one of the leading astronomical research groups in the USSR. While there he publishedАнаберрационные отражающие поверхности и системы и новые способы их испытания [Aberration-free reflective surfaces and systems and new methods of testing them] (1932), in which he analyzed aplanatic double mirror systems and introduced the compensating method, which he proposed as early as 1924. This became the main control method ofmirror study along with the shadow method.
In 1944 he became a professor as a result of his paper, and from 1946 a Corresponding Member of theUSSR Academy of Sciences. From 1952 he worked inPulkovo Observatory. Maksutov died in what was then Leningrad (a.k.a. Saint Petersburg) in 1964.[2]
Maksutov's most well known contribution in the field of optics was made in 1941, when he invented theMaksutov telescope. Like theSchmidt telescope, the Maksutov corrects forspherical aberration by placing a corrector lens in front of the primary mirror. However, where the Schmidt uses anaspheric corrector at the entrance pupil, Maksutov's telescope uses a deeply curved full diameter negativemeniscus lens (a "meniscus corrector shell"). He published the design in 1944 in a paper entitled "Новые катадиоптрические менисковые системы" [New catadioptric meniscus systems].[3] This method was adopted not only by his own laboratory for many of the most important observatories in the Soviet Union, but also internationally. Several commercial telescope-making companies produce Maksutovs, includingCelestron,Meade, andQuestar.
He created manyobjective lenses,mirrors, andprisms of various sizes and purposes. He also created a photo-gastrograph (used for photographing thestomach), a needle-microscope, shadow instruments for aerodynamic tubes, telescopic spectacles, and other instruments.
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