Roman telescope

You would be esentially setting up a Jewlers shop since that kind of
technology was pretty well established at that time of couse everything was
done by hand at that time. So while your at it you could invent the battery the
chemicals existed at that time its what they used in there tanneries the
generator needs a way tmake copper wire how about gun powder too.

Clear Skies
Dwight L Bogan

Bernardz wrote in
news:MPG.1aa32e61522659a398991e@news:

I am writing a what-if history fiction and need some help.

If you were suddenly dropped in Rome say in 200 CE and you needed to
build a telescope for mass production. What sort of telescope would you
make and what would it look like?


I'd build a newtonian reflecting telescope with a metal mirror. The romans
certainly could cast a bronze disk a few inches in diameter. You would have
to experiment with abrasives to grind and polish it. Yeah, the reflectivity
would be low, and it would have to be repolished every couple months as it
tarnished but it would work. Maybe a light coating of olive oil could keep
it from tarnishing ha. Depends on how good the optics would have to be. If
cost were no object, gold or silver could be used. Gold would not tarnish.
Maybe you could use Gold for the secondary mirrors.
Bryan

Bernardz wrote in
news:MPG.1aa32e61522659a398991e@news:

I am writing a what-if history fiction and need some help.

If you were suddenly dropped in Rome say in 200 CE and you needed to
build a telescope for mass production. What sort of telescope would you
make and what would it look like?


I'd build a newtonian reflecting telescope with a metal mirror. The romans
certainly could cast a bronze disk a few inches in diameter. You would have
to experiment with abrasives to grind and polish it. Yeah, the reflectivity
would be low, and it would have to be repolished every couple months as it
tarnished but it would work. Maybe a light coating of olive oil could keep
it from tarnishing ha. Depends on how good the optics would have to be. If
cost were no object, gold or silver could be used. Gold would not tarnish.
Maybe you could use Gold for the secondary mirrors.
Bryan

On 2004-02-22, starman wrote:

The hard part would be making optical quality glass
in 200-CE.

Lenses could be made from rock crystal.

On 2004-02-22, starman wrote:

The hard part would be making optical quality glass
in 200-CE.

Lenses could be made from rock crystal.

On 22 Feb 2004 15:37:14 GMT, Jon Isaacs wrote:

That's not what I'd build if I were dropped into that period of history. I'd
make a Newtonian reflector. It would be quite practical to build one 4-6
inches
in aperture using commonly available materials. The quality of the glass can
be much lower with a reflecting telescope, and there is less glass grinding
required. The only lens would be the ocular- much smaller than a refractive
objective.

A Newtonian was my first thought but silvering the mirror seemed like the real
problem. Newtonian mirrors were metal until sometime in the 1800's...

When a simple (though messy) chemical process was figured out to deposit
silver.

If you know this process (basically, silver nitrate, ammonia, and glucose
are all that's required), it would be possible to duplicate it with the
materials available at the time (increasing human knowledge of chemistry
at the same time).

I guess one could make a silver Newtonian mirror.

Why not one made of aluminum? Though sufficient quantities of aluminum
would be challenging to find (and impossible to refine from ore with
existing technology), such a mirror would be lighter, stronger, and more
resistant to tarnish and corrosion.

But all metal mirrors would suffer from expansion issues. It would be
more practical to work out the silvering process.

I don't expect to hear from uncle Rod on this one, pretty difficult to make an
SCT in 200BC...

Yes, the corrector would be quite a challenge. A MCT, however, might just
be doable, though still quite difficult (and it would require the ability
to silver glass, unless an independant secondary design were used).


--
- Mike

Remove 'spambegone.net' and reverse to send e-mail.

On 22 Feb 2004 15:37:14 GMT, Jon Isaacs wrote:

That's not what I'd build if I were dropped into that period of history. I'd
make a Newtonian reflector. It would be quite practical to build one 4-6
inches
in aperture using commonly available materials. The quality of the glass can
be much lower with a reflecting telescope, and there is less glass grinding
required. The only lens would be the ocular- much smaller than a refractive
objective.

A Newtonian was my first thought but silvering the mirror seemed like the real
problem. Newtonian mirrors were metal until sometime in the 1800's...

When a simple (though messy) chemical process was figured out to deposit
silver.

If you know this process (basically, silver nitrate, ammonia, and glucose
are all that's required), it would be possible to duplicate it with the
materials available at the time (increasing human knowledge of chemistry
at the same time).

I guess one could make a silver Newtonian mirror.

Why not one made of aluminum? Though sufficient quantities of aluminum
would be challenging to find (and impossible to refine from ore with
existing technology), such a mirror would be lighter, stronger, and more
resistant to tarnish and corrosion.

But all metal mirrors would suffer from expansion issues. It would be
more practical to work out the silvering process.

I don't expect to hear from uncle Rod on this one, pretty difficult to make an
SCT in 200BC...

Yes, the corrector would be quite a challenge. A MCT, however, might just
be doable, though still quite difficult (and it would require the ability
to silver glass, unless an independant secondary design were used).


--
- Mike

Remove 'spambegone.net' and reverse to send e-mail.

On Sun, 22 Feb 2004 21:24:19 +1100, Bernardz wrote:

I am writing a what-if history fiction and need some help.

If you were suddenly dropped in Rome say in 200 CE and you needed to
build a telescope for mass production. What sort of telescope would you
make and what would it look like?

A Newtonian, for certain. It's by far the simplest to make, and would
outperform any refractor with the materials available.

It would likely look much the same as a home-built Dobsonian-mounted
Newtonian does today.


--
- Mike

Remove 'spambegone.net' and reverse to send e-mail.

On Sun, 22 Feb 2004 21:24:19 +1100, Bernardz wrote:

I am writing a what-if history fiction and need some help.

If you were suddenly dropped in Rome say in 200 CE and you needed to
build a telescope for mass production. What sort of telescope would you
make and what would it look like?

A Newtonian, for certain. It's by far the simplest to make, and would
outperform any refractor with the materials available.

It would likely look much the same as a home-built Dobsonian-mounted
Newtonian does today.


--
- Mike

Remove 'spambegone.net' and reverse to send e-mail.

On 22 Feb 2004 15:37:14 GMT, (Jon Isaacs) wrote:

A Newtonian was my first thought but silvering the mirror seemed like the real
problem. Newtonian mirrors were metal until sometime in the 1800's...

Yes, but silvering isn't difficult, and can be done with materials that were
available to the Romans. So as long we are assuming that we can take the
knowledge in our heads back with us, no big problem- that is, building a
Newtonian in Roman times doesn't require inventing a whole infrastructure to
support its construction.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com