Telescopic sight having lens holder tube with half socket pivot mount
First Claim
1. A telescopic sight apparatus, comprising:
- a lens holder tube containing lenses including at least one erector lens therein mounted in alignment along an optical axis;
support means for supporting said tube within a housing between an objective lens system forward of the front end of said tube and an eyepiece lens system rearward of the rear end of said tube;
pivot means for pivotally mounting the rear end portion of said tube;
adjustment means engaging the front end portion of said tube for adjusting the position of said tube by pivoting it about said pivot means in at least two mutually perpendicular directions; and
reticle means supported within said housing between said objective lens system and said eyepiece lens system;
said pivot means being a half socket pivot means including a socket surface in engagement with a spherical pivot surface on said rear end portion of said tube and a socket spring for resiliently urging said pivot surface in contact with said socket surface.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A telescopic sight apparatus is described having a lens holder tube which is pivotally mounted at one end thereof by means of an improved half socket pivot means for windage and elevation adjustments. The telescopic sight apparatus may be a rifle scope. The lens holder tube contains image erector lenses which may be mounted for longitudinal adjustment to vary the magnification of the scope or may be fixed against longitudinal movement to provide fixed magnification. The half socket pivot mount includes a spherical pivot surface provided on one end of the lens holder tube which is resiliently urged by a socket compression spring into contact with a conical socket surface provided by an internal shoulder on a surrounding housing tube. The radius of curvature of the spherical pivot surface is centered on the sight point of a reticle when such reticle is mounted outside of the lens holder tube, to maintain the sight point alignment with the optical axis of such lenses in different pivot positions of the lens holder tube, so that the reticle remains centered in the field of view of the erector lenses. In the variable magnification scope the reticle is maintained at a calibration position in focus for both the maximum and minimum magnification positions of the erector lenses by means of a calibration adjustment spring. In the fixed magnification embodiment of the scope the reticle is mounted in the focal plane of the eyepiece lens system, while in the variable magnification scope, such reticle may be mounted in such calibration position slightly out of alignment with such focal plane.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A telescopic sight apparatus, comprising:
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a lens holder tube containing lenses including at least one erector lens therein mounted in alignment along an optical axis; support means for supporting said tube within a housing between an objective lens system forward of the front end of said tube and an eyepiece lens system rearward of the rear end of said tube; pivot means for pivotally mounting the rear end portion of said tube; adjustment means engaging the front end portion of said tube for adjusting the position of said tube by pivoting it about said pivot means in at least two mutually perpendicular directions; and reticle means supported within said housing between said objective lens system and said eyepiece lens system; said pivot means being a half socket pivot means including a socket surface in engagement with a spherical pivot surface on said rear end portion of said tube and a socket spring for resiliently urging said pivot surface in contact with said socket surface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A rifle scope, comprising:
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a lens holder tube containing lenses including at least one erector lens therein mounted in alignment along an optical axis; support means for supporting said tube within a housing between an objective lens system forward of the front end of said tube and an eyepiece lens system rearward of the rear end of said tube; pivot means for pivotally mounting the rear end portion of said tube; adjustment means engaging the front end portion of said tube for adjusting the position of said tube by pivoting it about said pivot means in at least two mutually perpendicular directions; and reticle means supported within said housing between said objective lens system and said eyepiece lens system; said pivot means being a half socket pivot means including a socket surface in engagement with a spherical pivot surface of said rear end portion of said tube and a socket spring for resiliently urging said pivot surface in contact with said socket surface, and said spherical pivot surface being supported with its center of curvature coincident with the sight point of said reticle means. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification