Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

102:1086-1091, September 1990

MYLAR AS AN OPTICAL WINDOW

LAIRD A. THOMPSON
Astronomy Department, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801
Received 19

ABSTRACT
Optical tests have been made to determine whether Mylar film has high enough optical quality
to be used as a window for a telescope dome or as the entrance window for a closed-tube telescope.
The results are encouraging. The thinnest Mylar film available from DuPont (thickness 1.5 μιη) has
reasonably high optical quality and, if properly mounted, sufficient tensile strength to resist
destruction by gusts of wind. An attempt to use 1.5-μηι Mylar to reduce dome-induced turbulence
is described.
Key words: seeing-optical testing-Mylar film

I. Introduction these problems would be easily solved. Mylar film is very

Ground-based optical telescopes and their domes
are generally not in thermal equilibrium with the outside
air. Turbulence induced by the lack of thermal equi-
librium can degrade the quality of astronomical images.
In a quest to reduce this source of image degradation,
several imaginative solutions have been suggested and/or
implemented. Note that most of the following examples
are elaborate and costly. At Pic du Midi, a 2-meter tele-
scope was built with a solid telescope tube and a closed
dome—the tube and dome are connected with a moving
shroud—to prevent warm air from flowing out of the
dome. Only the top of the telescope tube is open to the
outside air (Rosch 1987). The very successful New Tech-
nology Telescope (NTT) at the European Southern Ob-
servatory has an open-tube telescope located (when the
dome slot is open) in clear air sandwiched between two
individually enclosed halves of the dome. The NTT dome
is conceptually more advanced but similar to the older
Multiple Mirror Telescope dome. Racine (1987) proposed
an even more elaborate scheme for a high-resolution
telescope. The telescope tube would be attached directly
to the dome, similar to the Pic du Midi design, but an
optical window would be placed at the top of the telescope
tube to prevent thermal mixing of the cool nighttime air
with air in the closed telescope tube.
At many observatories image quality might improve if
an optical window were used to seal the entrance slit of
the dome and/or the top of a closed telescope tube. The
window would prevent the wind from mixing outside air
with air inside the dome and/or telescope tube. Unfortu-
nately, a glass optical window large enough to cover the
dome slot or the top of a closed telescope tube would be
expensive and so massive that it would be difficult to
support.
If Mylar film can be used as an optical window both of
inexpensive and simple to mount. Amateur astronomers
have reported reasonable success in closing off small
domes with thin sheets of Mylar (Sahula 1978). The pur-
pose of this paper is to describe optical tests of various
types of Mylar film both in a laboratory setting and at an
observatory to determine how Mylar might function as a
large optical window.
2. Mylar Characteristics
Mylar polyester film is manufactured by Ε. I. DuPont
de Nemours & Company, Incorporated (Wilmington,
Delaware) in a wide range of types. Not all of these are
optically clear, yet there are two types that raised initial
interest: type-C Mylar which is produced to meet the
needs of the capacitor industry and type-D Mylar which is
touted as a film of great clarity. Type-D Mylar is some-
times termed optical grade. While type-D sounded quite
interesting for astronomical purposes, the first optical
tests showed it to be inadequate. Product engineers at
DuPont later said that type-D Mylar is microscopically
embossed on one side to enhance its "slip" characteristics,
and in this process its optical properties are compro-
mised. In the remainder of this paper only type-C Mylar
will be discussed.
Type-C Mylar is manufactured in six standard thick-
nesses that range from 1.5 μιη to 23 μιη. Data sheets
provided by DuPont show that it has excellent optical
transmittance. The following statements apply to the
thickest version (23 μιη) of type-C Mylar. Transmittance
turns on sharply at 320 nm, rises to 87% at 400 nm,
remains at 87% transmittance until 900 nm, and then rises
to 91% transmittance and remains high to 2.3 μιη. Thin-
ner samples of type-C Mylar are expected to transmit
somewhat better. Based on the DuPont data sheets, in
the visual portion of the spectrum the transmittance of

1086
© Astronomical Society of the Pacific · Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System
 MYLAR AS AN OPTICAL WINDOW
the thinnest Mylar samples approaches the theoretical
limit imposed by two "air-dielectric" surfaces. Mylar has
an index of refraction of approximately 1.65.
There is a reasonable expectation that the thinnest
type-C Mylar will be optically flat. DuPont technical
representatives suggest that the thickness of this product
is controlled to within ± l%-2% at the time of manufac-
ture. If this tolerance is met, the 1.5-μιη thick Mylar
should be flat to approximately λ/10 at 500 nm. Thicker
Mylar films are held to a manufacturing standard of only
±5%, so for these one would predict decreased optical
performance.
The widest rolls of 1.5-μιη thick type-C Mylar pro-
duced by DuPont are 61 cm wide. Large samples of the
thinnest Mylar are moderately easy to handle. However,
it is an excellent dielectric so it does accumulate electric
charge and attract dust. Metallic strips can be attached to
the Mylar to help keep the accumulated charge at a
minimum.
3. Initial Tests
DuPont provided a full set of small (21 cm X 28 cm)
samples of both type-C and type-D Mylar that were used
in the initial tests. The gross optical properties of these
samples were tested by placing them in front of the
objective of a small-aperture telescope while viewing a
star. This "survey" technique was used to show that all but
the thinnest type-C Mylar samples introduced significant
aberrations in the star image.
Two laboratory tests were made to investigate the opti-
cal properties of the Mylar. First, a standard Foucault
knife-edge test was assembled with a 21.6-cm diameter
spherical mirror (mirror aberrations < λ/10 at 500 nm).
The Mylar samples were placed in front of the spherical
mirror in such a way that the test beam passed through
the Mylar twice. For the thicker Mylar samples it was
clear that the optical aberrations consisted of strong linear
striations in one direction, presumably in the direction of
manufacture. Only the 1.5-μιη thick sample of type-C
Mylar showed an excellent pupil image with slight linear
striations. All other samples were rejected as potential
optical windows.
The second laboratory test setup consisted of a spatially
filtered He-Ne laser (633 nm) uniformly illuminating
the same 21.6-cm diameter spherical mirror. Laser light
reflected off the spherical mirror produced a diffraction-
limited image at the mirror focus, and a laboratory pho-
tometer was placed at this focal point. The 1.5-μηι thick
type-C Mylar was placed in the beam close to the spheri-
cal mirror, so again the light passed through the Mylar
twice. With a large (with respect to the diffraction limit)
aperture in the photometer, a measurement of the dou-
ble-pass transmittance of the system was made with the
Mylar in the beam and with the Mylar out of the beam.
The double-pass transmittance of the 1.5-μηι thick Mylar
© Astronomical Society of the Pacific · Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System
1087
was measured in this way to be 86% (± 1.5%). A single
pass through the Mylar would therefore transmit 93% of
the laser light.
By stopping the spherical mirror down to a diameter of
13.6 cm, it was possible to match the first minimum in the
Airy diffraction pattern to the diameter of the smallest
aperture in the laboratory photometer. Measurements of
the central Airy peak in the diffraction pattern were made
with and without the 1.5-μιη Mylar sample. This test
showed that only 9% of the light in the central Airy peak
was scattered by the double pass through the Mylar.
Using the standard definition of the Strehl ratio (cf. Born
and Wolf 1964), this measurement can be used to infer
that the Mylar introduces a wavefront variance of approxi-
mately λ/20 at 633 nm.
4. Mylar Tests at the Observatory
Given the success of the laboratory tests with the 1.5-
μιη thick type-C Mylar, a 61-cm-wide roll was ordered
from DuPont. This sample was taken to the 1-meter
telescope at Mount Laguna Observatory where, on three
separate occasions, the Mylar was tested under different
seeing conditions. Mylar windows were mounted in two
positions along the telescope beam: immediately in front
of the closed telescope tube (see Fig. 1) and in a window in
the dome shutter (see Fig. 2). The frame placed over the
closed telescope tube has a center support which was
aligned along the secondary-mirror support strut. Two
pieces of the 61-cm-wide Mylar were wide enough to
cover the 1-meter aperture.
The 1-meter Mount Laguna Observatory telescope was
configured at//13.5 (rather than our optional//7.6) and
the TI 800 X 800 CCD of the observatory was mounted
bare at the focal plane. With this configuration the CCD
gives 0.20 arc sec/pixel. First, CCD images were ob-
tained of the telescope pupil with the Mylar window
mounted at the top of the telescope tube. The exposures
were repeated with the Mylar window removed. Figure 3
shows the results. Linear striations can be seen in the
pupil image with the Mylar in the beam. However, the
amplitude of the striations appears to be small relative to
the aberrations intrinsic to the primary mirror.
With the same telescope and detector configuration,
focused images of stars were obtained on several occa-
sions with and without the Mylar window mounted at the
top of the telescope tube. In all cases there was no signifi-
cant change in the FWHM of stellar images produced
with and without the Mylar window. During these tests,
image FWHM ranged between 1.1 and 2.5 arc sec. Since
the pupil images both in the laboratory and at the tele-
scope show little evidence of strong Mylar aberrations,
this result was expected. However, there is a potential
problem that the Mylar film may produce a halo of
scattered light. To demonstrate that this is also not a prob-
lem, image profiles are presented here for one set of data
1088 LAIRD A. THOMPSON

Fig. 1-Mylar window mounted on top of the 1-meter telescope. A crude shroud blocked air flow between the window and the top of the telescope
tube.
obtained 1989 December 2. On this particular night,
to reduce problems of image wander and to improve
the angular resolution for the test, very short expo-
sures (0.010 sec) were obtained and later centroided and
coadded. The individual images in both data sets (Mylar
and no-Mylar) showed considerable variance in image
FWHM ranging from 5 pixels = 1.0 arc sec to 9.5 pixels =
1.9 arc sec. Figure 4 shows a comparison between the
radial intensity profiles of the coadded images with and
without the Mylar in place. The two profiles are close to
being identical. There is a slight difference in the FWHM
between the two profiles: 1.3 arc sec with the Mylar
window and 1.1 arc sec without the Mylar window. How-
ever, this difference is probably not significant relative to
the variance in image FWHM that was occurring that
night. The elapsed time between the two sets of expo-
sures was approximately 1 hour, and atmospheric seeing
can easily change by 20% during an hour of time. The fact
that the two profiles are identical at large radii shows that
the Mylar does not scatter light from the image core into
the wings.
telescope to demonstrate the effect of mounting a Mylar
window to cover the closed telescope tube and another
Mylar window to cover the dome slot. Resistive ther-
mometers were used to measure the air temperature at
three locations: (1) inside the telescope tube adjacent to
the primary mirror, (2) 5 cm above the cement floor of the
dome in an open area to the west of the telescope pier,
and (3) outside the dome on the catwalk. Figures 5 and 6
show temperature measurements on two nights, the first
without the two Mylar windows in place and the second
with both windows mounted. Clearly, the Mylar acts to
impede the exchange of heat. Without the Mylar in place
(see Fig. 5) the temperature inside the dome dropped to
within 0?7 C of the outside air temperature after the dome
had been opened three hours. The air near the primary
mirror also dropped over the same time span but re-
mained 2° C warmer than the outside air. With the Mylar
in place (see Fig. 6) the inside dome temperature re-
mained more than Io C warmer than the outside tempera-
ture throughout the test, and the air near the primary
mirror cooled less rapidly.

5. Suppression of Thermal Exchange 6. Discussion

with Mylar Windows While the Mylar windows were doing their job of re-
Quick tests were made with the Mount Laguna 1-meter ducing the mixing of warm and cool air, there was no

© Astronomical Society of the Pacific · Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System
 MYLAR AS AN OPTICAL WINDOW
Fig. 2-Mylar window mounted in dome slot. The dome shutter
stopped air from passing above the window, and the wind screen
blocked air from passing from below. Each of the three panels in the
window were approximately 0.5-m wide.
Fig. 3-Photographs of the 1-meter telescope pupil, (a) The telescope pupil with no Mylar, (b) The telescope pupil with the Mylar in place.
© Astronomical Society of the Pacific · Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System
1089
evidence of any improvement in image quality with the
windows in place. There are two possible explanations.
First, the poor image quality at Mount Laguna Observa-
tory may simply be a characteristic of something other
than dome-induced seeing (local orographies and/or up-
per-atmospheric turbulence). Second, it is abundantly
clear from the data displayed in Figures 5 and 6 that the
Mount Laguna 1-meter telescope is many degrees C out
of equilibrium with the surrounding air. Simply trapping
the very warm air inside the telescope tube and inside the
dome may be an inadequate way to solve dome-seeing
problems. It is likely that a telescope and dome have to be
much closer in thermal equilibrium to the outside air
before Mylar windows provide any advantage.
Anyone who attempts to proceed further with these
experiments should be aware that the first attempts to
mount the Mylar as a dome window were halted by a
gusty wind that tore the Mylar window to shreds. Mylar
has a tensile strength high enough to withstand quite
large static air pressures (up to 21,000 psi and a tear
strength of 250 Newtons/mm). However, for the experi-
ments described above the Mylar was relatively loosely
attached with double-sided tape to its frame, and the
wind whipped the thin Mylar until it snapped. If the
Mylar were held in a frame by pinching it between two
rubber gaskets, and if constant pressure were applied to
the Mylar window—from inside the telescope tube or
from inside the telescope dome—it is likely that the
Mylar would remain taut thereby preventing it from
whipping in the wind and tearing.
7. Conclusions
The thinnest grade of type-C Mylar which is 1.5-μιη
1090 LAIRD A. THOMPSON

1E6

1E5

00
ζ
LU
1E4

1000

100

RADIUS (PIXELS)
Fig. 4-Radial profiles of stellar images without the Mylar (open circles) and with the Mylar (filled circles). One profile was scaled in intensity to
superpose it on the other profile. There is no evidence in this profile for scattered light produced by the Mylar.

20

March 21,1990
O
CO 18
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ω
en
ω 16 -
~Ό

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ZD 14 -
er
LU
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12 -
LU

10
10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
TIME (hrs)
Fig. 5-Temperature variations obtained 1990 March 21 with no Mylar windows mounted. Triangles show outside temperature, circles the air
temperature inside the dome, and squares the air temperature adjacent to the primary mirror. The dome was opened at 16:30 and the primary mirror
cover at 18:45.

thick provides excellent optical quality as an optical win-
dow. Aberrations are less than λ/10 and no scattered light
from the Mylar is apparent. Type-C Mylar is produced
regularly in widths of 61 cm. If it is mounted on a dome
or over a closed-tube telescope and pressurized from
inside, it is likely to withstand moderately heavy gusts of
wind. If used to isolate (moderately) warm air inside
domes and/or closed-tube telescopes, it may help to re-
duce the effects of dome-induced seeing.
The laboratory tests of Mylar samples were started by
Mike Svec and brought to excellent completion by Mike
Corn. The Mylar window attachments to the 1-meter
telescope at Mount Laguna Observatory were built by
Jay Grover, and the temperature probes were provided
by Dr. Ron Angione. Numerous product representatives
at DuPont provided technical information on Mylar and

© Astronomical Society of the Pacific · Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System
 MYLAR AS AN OPTICAL WINDOW 1091

O
V)
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en
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Cd
LU
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10 12 14 16 18 20 22
TIME (hrs)
Fig. 6-Temperature variations obtained 1990 March 23 with Mylar windows in place. Symbols are the same as in Figure 5. The dome was "opened"
at 17:50 and the primary mirror cover was opened at 19:15. Notice how the inside air temperatures fall less rapidly in Figure 6 than in Figure 5 after the
dome is opened.

generously sent samples free of charge. Special thanks to REFERENCES

the American Astronomical Society Small Research Grant
awards committee and to NASA for providing iunds to
carry out this work. Mount Laguna Observatory is oper-
ated jointly by San Diego State University and the Uni-
versity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Born, M., and Wolf, E. 1964, Principles of Optics (Oxford, England:
Fergamon Press), p. 464.
Racine, R. 1987, private communication.
Rosch, J. 1987, in Identification, Optimization, and Protection of Opti-
cal Telescope Sites, ed. R. L. Millis, O. Franz, H. D. Abies, and
C. C. Dahn (Flagstaff, AZ: Lowell Observatory), p. 146.
Sahula, P. 1978, Sky and Tel, 56, 67.

© Astronomical Society of the Pacific · Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System