Liquid mirror tech.

Thought this might be of interest.
http://www.americanscientist.org/tem...baa8xID5o_zAj9

Has anyone out there ever tried to cast a mirror, say out of liquid
acrylic,
by this method and then coat it?
It could sure save a lot of trouble in the grinding.
MadDog

"There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that
cannot easily be duplicated by a normal, kindly family man who
just comes in to work every day and has a job to do." -- Terry
Pratchett

wrote in message
ups.com...
Thought this might be of interest.
http://www.americanscientist.org/tem...baa8xID5o_zAj9

Has anyone out there ever tried to cast a mirror, say out of liquid
acrylic,
by this method and then coat it?
It could sure save a lot of trouble in the grinding.


The Amateur Scientist:

Mirror, Making By Spinning A Liquid,
Mark Dragovan and Don Alvarez
1994 Feb, pg 116

On Apr 10, 5:26 pm, "Greg Neill" wrote:
wrote in message

ups.com...

Thought this might be of interest.
http://www.americanscientist.org/tem...55126;jsession...

Has anyone out there ever tried to cast a mirror, say out of liquid
acrylic,
by this method and then coat it?
It could sure save a lot of trouble in the grinding.

The Amateur Scientist:

Mirror, Making By Spinning A Liquid,
Mark Dragovan and Don Alvarez
1994 Feb, pg 116

That article is one of the big reasons I miss the column.

wrote:
http://www.americanscientist.org/tem...baa8xID5o_zAj9

A hard way to make a living in my opinion, though Paul Hickson
(today's major proponent of liquid mirror telescopes) has to be
respected.

Has anyone out there ever tried to cast a mirror, say out of liquid
acrylic,

Only some 45 years ago. :-) Robert Leighton and co-workers cast
several mirrors out of epoxy. Surface quality was never terribly
good, but his 1.2-m mirror was used for the original Two Micron Sky
Survey (Neugebauer and Leighton 1969). I think the telescope or at
least the mirror is now in the National Air and Space Museum.

Roger Angel's mirror casting uses spinning to create an initial
concave surface, but the material is glass. See http://mirrorlab.as.arizona.edu/