Fourier Transform Photography: A New Method for X-Ray Astronomy

Abstract

In comparison with all other branches of astronomy, X-ray astronomy suffers from a relative dearth of image forming devices. No X-ray lens is known and image formation by reflection requires glancing incidence optics which have small fields of view and are extremely difficult to fabricate, even for the small apertures (about 2 cm 2 ) now employed. The only other imaging device which has been successfully employed is the simplest of all, the pinhole camera. Pinhole cameras with resolutions better than 10 −3 rad are easily constructed, but the apertures are very small—not greater than about 10 −4 cm 2 . The new instrument described here is closely related to the pinhole camera and may be viewed as an attempt to overcome the aperture restrictions of this simple device.