Pointless, but is it possible?

[Xytrell]

Could you use two prisms and two cylinder lenses to split and recombine a multiline beam? Just curious. I ran this experiment in my trusty optics simulator (MSPaint) and it seems to work

Why, or why not?

[Laserchik]

Personally, I don't know-but I would love to see if you can.

[mixedgas]

Yes, it works, and it has been used as a color control technique in the past. You place various modulation devices in the beam array between the prisms and lenses, and can achieve some wild color effects.


With care you can use it to shift the spectrum and white balance of abstracts, there was once a top of the line planetarium projector that had multiple prism chains and PCAOMS shared between multiple scan heads. Casey Stack spent 30 minutes drawing sketches on a napkin at SELEM, and it was fascinating what it could do.

Some week when I am not so busy I might post a few details of one way of implementing that.


Steve