Continuous optical zoom telescopic system based on liquid lenses.

Telescopes play an essential important role in the fields of astronomical observation, emergency rescue, etc. The traditional telescopes achieve zoom function through the mechanical movement of the solid lenses, usually requiring refocusing after magnification adjustment. Therefore, the traditional telescopes lack adaptability, port-ability and real-time capability. In this paper, a continuous optical zoom telescopic system based on liquid lenses is proposed. The main components of the system consist of an objective lens, an eyepiece, and a zoom group composed of six pieces of liquid lenses. By adjusting the external voltages on the liquid lenses, the zoom telescopic system can achieve continuous optical zoom from ∼1.0× to ∼4.0× operating with an angular resolution from 28.648" to 19.098", and the magnification switching time is ∼50ms. The optical structure of the zoom telescopic system with excellent performance is given, and its feasibility is demonstrated by simulations and experiments. The proposed system with fast response, portability and high adaptability is expected to be applied to astronomical observation, emergency rescue and so on.