Not bad, it was worth joining Engineering Physics @ IITM after all.
We now do a course called "EP210(?): An Introduction to Engineering Optics" - I may not even know the course name correctly, but the course... is wonderful. Dr. M. P. Kothiyal, who handles our course, is teaching us all about paraxial optics, non-paraxial optics, abberations, and the like.
All those familiar terms that we use when talking about eyepieces and telescopes are now becoming more and more understandable. For instance, we proved and understood why a Cassegrain could work with a hyperbolic primary and an elliptical secondary, and how a hyperbolic secondary would be still better.
Then there were these ununderstandable terms like "Exit Pupil" and "Entrance Pupil" which have now become more and more clear. Then, we now understand why Coma arises in our telescopes and how we can quantify it in numbers... and we are now seeing how Coma can be corrected for. I now realise why Tejraj's eyepieces give ugly images while Plossls give sharp and beautiful stars.
This course is expected to discuss telescope designs in the near future. I have also been intrigued by the split image focusser that we have in our SLR Cameras, and I hope we will learn how it works as well.
Till now, I was seeing things without understanding. Now, I understand atleast a bit.
Nice course it is...