Throughout the optics industry there is a continuing need to evaluate the performance of optical systems: lenses, mirror systems, imagers, microscopes, telescopes, photocopiers, laser beam managers... the list is endless. To deal with these requirements, Stellar Software has been providing software tools that run on popular computer platforms to perform these calculations and show the results both graphically and in tabular form. Our first products were for the IBM PC in 1985, followed by our Macintosh products in 1990. Of course our products have grown up alongside the computing world, and the needs of our customers have grown too.

Here's an example: a crossed Czerny-Turner spectrometer must be set up to give good grating clearances over a specified range of wavelengths, without vignetting, while preserving good spectroscopic resolution.

With the advent of Java as a cross-platform application development language it's practical to create software tools that pretty much run anywhere. Our BEAM FOUR JAVA EDITION, released this year, is the culmination of our efforts since 2004 to combine the most needed features of our product lines into one high value run-anywhere application.

Another example: a Cassegrain telescope is to be modelled but it has a spider blocking some of the entrance pupil. Spot diagrams and image quality statistics are needed. Start with a detailed layout, as shown, and continue on to get the spot diagrams and image statistics.

Welcome to our website. Here you will find product specifications, owners manual views, tech notes, a free download demonstrator of this new product, and a straightforward secure e-purchase mechanism that lets you register and download the full product at your convenience.

Be sure to try the free demonstrator first! Read the manual, try out the examples that download with it, and try out your own optical ideas with the demo application. We want all our customers to be happy customers. Any questions, feel free to email us; we try to get back to you within a day or two.