Optical analysis of spherical mirrors of telescopes: The lens-less Schmidt case

The light distribution on the focal surface of spheric mirrors designed for telescopes in the lens-less Schmidt configuration is calculated analytically using geometrical optics. nalysis was motivated by considerations of the design of the AUGER fluorescence detector [J. Abraham, et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 533 (2004) 50]. Its geometrical parameters are used in the examples.