72 inch Hubble mirror prototype???

Anybody know what mirror the story is talking about? The actual Hubble
primary is considerably bigger.

+++++++++++++

http://www.unm.edu/~market/cgi-bin/archives/001283.html

June 21, 2006
UNM astronomers search for precision with new ground-based telescope
New telescope to provide distinct record of universe

Astronomers at the University of New Mexico are developing an exciting
new telescope with capabilities that are unrivaled in astronomy
circles. The CCD/Transit Instrument with Innovative Instrumentation, or
CTI-II, is a special-purpose telescope where accuracy and precision are
the key components allowing for unprecedented research opportunities.

[snip]

The telescope, under computer control, uses a prototype mirror six feet
in diameter that was originally designed for the Hubble Space
Telescope.

Allen Thomson wrote:

Anybody know what mirror the story is talking about? The actual Hubble
primary is considerably bigger.

+++++++++++++

http://www.unm.edu/~market/cgi-bin/archives/001283.html

They must be referring to the 'Kodak' mirror.

It was nearly perfect, as I recall.

http://cosmic.lifeform.org

Allen Thomson wrote:

Anybody know what mirror the story is talking about? The actual Hubble
primary is considerably bigger.

Not the Kodak backup mirror, at any rate, as that one is 2.4m in diameter
and sitting in the National Air and Space Museum. Identifying it
will probably take rummaging in the library - although the history
of the HST project is well documented (almost the first space
observatory for which this is true), a lot happened so early that
I can find no trace on the Web.

McGraw built a similar telescope on Kitt Peak in the 1980s before
leaving for New Mexico. They ran data for a handful of nights and
found that computing hardware was not really up to the level of
on-the-fly processing they needed for the science that they
could envision. For a transit telescope, the mounting could consist
of what were basically concrete blocks, with the telescope pointed
slightly off-zenith so that the Coma galaxy cluster passed through
the field, enabling automatic supernova searches in its member
galaxies.


Bill Keel

Allen Thomson ) wrote:

: Anybody know what mirror the story is talking about? The actual Hubble
: primary is considerably bigger.

96 in. I believe for HST mirror.

: +++++++++++++

: http://www.unm.edu/~market/cgi-bin/archives/001283.html

: June 21, 2006
: UNM astronomers search for precision with new ground-based telescope
: New telescope to provide distinct record of universe

: Astronomers at the University of New Mexico are developing an exciting
: new telescope with capabilities that are unrivaled in astronomy
: circles. The CCD/Transit Instrument with Innovative Instrumentation, or
: CTI-II, is a special-purpose telescope where accuracy and precision are
: the key components allowing for unprecedented research opportunities.

: [snip]

: The telescope, under computer control, uses a prototype mirror six feet
: in diameter that was originally designed for the Hubble Space
: Telescope.


Again, they ended up with a 96 in. mirror instead.

Allen Thomson wrote:
Anybody know what mirror the story is talking about? The actual Hubble
primary is considerably bigger.

+++++++++++++

http://www.unm.edu/~market/cgi-bin/archives/001283.html


The original Multiple Mirror Telescope (built in Arizona in 1979) had
six surplus 72-inch mirrors that were supplied by the U.S. Air Force.
The six mirrors were replaced by a single 6.5 meter mirror in 2002.

http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resou.../mmt/index.php

Maybe the mirror in your article was one of the original MMT mirrors?

-Rusty

Rusty wrote:

The original Multiple Mirror Telescope (built in Arizona in 1979) had
six surplus 72-inch mirrors that were supplied by the U.S. Air Force.
The six mirrors were replaced by a single 6.5 meter mirror in 2002.

Yes, that possibility occurred to me. The MMT blanks were, according
to the UL current at the time, left over from the KH-8 program. Maybe
that's what the current story is confused about.

On Fri, 23 Jun 2006 08:19:21 -0500, Thomas Lee Elifritz
wrote, in part:

They must be referring to the 'Kodak' mirror.

It was nearly perfect, as I recall.

I thought *that* mirror was the same size as the one used in Hubble, and
so this was an earlier prototype rather than a parallel effort as the
Kodak mirror was.

John Savard
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Allen Thomson wrote:

Rusty wrote:

The original Multiple Mirror Telescope (built in Arizona in 1979) had
six surplus 72-inch mirrors that were supplied by the U.S. Air Force.
The six mirrors were replaced by a single 6.5 meter mirror in 2002.

Yes, that possibility occurred to me. The MMT blanks were, according
to the UL current at the time, left over from the KH-8 program. Maybe
that's what the current story is confused about.

I've gotten from two people at the MMT Observatory that the original
mirrors were the ones not used for MOL. Was its camera the KH-8?
Come to think of it, I never did hear what the did with the 6
when replaced by one 6.5-m primary. "Free to good home, prefer to
keep family together..."

Bill Keel