A Bauernfeind prism is a type of reflecting prism used to deviate a beam of light by 45° to 60°, depending on its construction, while neither flipping nor rotating the image. [1] It is named for its inventor, the German expert of geodesy Karl Maximilian von Bauernfeind. [2]
The beam is reflected twice in the prism, with one reflection happening at less than the critical angle. Therefore, the prism requires a reflective coating for this surface to be usable in practice.
A Bauernfeind prism with 45° beam deviation is also known as a half-penta prism or semipentaprism. [3] [4] A Bauernfeind prism is used together with a Schmidt roof prism to form a Schmidt–Pechan prism.
The Bauernfeind prism is commonly used in microscope tubes and in geodesy to deviate the path to the eyepiece in order make the device more ergonomic. [5]
More recent applications are glasses that deflect the viewing angle either downwards (for relaxed reading or watching TV [6]), or upwards (as in belay glasses for watching a climber while belaying).