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little flat mirrors



 
 
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  #1  
Old May 14th 06, 07:30 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
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I had a thought - dangerous i know - what if you made a large parabolic
frame out of something like wood (you choose). Then you bought a few large
household mirrors and cut small round sections out of them and pasted them
onto the wood frame. Would you then have yourself a larger effective mirror
on the cheap? Would it work?
Eric

  #2  
Old May 14th 06, 07:45 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
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Default little flat mirrors

Eric wrote:

I had a thought - dangerous i know - what if you made a large parabolic
frame out of something like wood (you choose). Then you bought a few large
household mirrors and cut small round sections out of them and pasted them
onto the wood frame. Would you then have yourself a larger effective
mirror on the cheap? Would it work?


Oh yes, you can boil some water and maybe roast a chicken or two

  #3  
Old May 14th 06, 08:19 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
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Default little flat mirrors

Eric wrote:
I had a thought - dangerous i know - what if you made a large parabolic
frame out of something like wood (you choose). Then you bought a few large
household mirrors and cut small round sections out of them and pasted them
onto the wood frame. Would you then have yourself a larger effective mirror
on the cheap? Would it work?
Eric



Take a look at this gamma ray telescope, it's 10 meters and not wood.

http://jelley.wustl.edu/Pages/images+hopkins.html


  #4  
Old May 14th 06, 09:15 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
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Default little flat mirrors

Dan Mckenna wrote:
Eric wrote:
I had a thought - dangerous i know - what if you made a large parabolic
frame out of something like wood (you choose). Then you bought a few
large
household mirrors and cut small round sections out of them and pasted
them
onto the wood frame. Would you then have yourself a larger effective
mirror
on the cheap? Would it work?


Take a look at this gamma ray telescope, it's 10 meters and not wood.

http://jelley.wustl.edu/Pages/images+hopkins.html


However (and it's a BIG however) is that each segment of the telescope shown
in the link are carefully figured parabolic mirrors in their own right
rather than 'small round sections' cut from household mirrors. Boiling
water or roasting chickens is about the limit of Eric's configuration, I'm
afraid - as an early reply suggested.

Clear Dark Steady Skies,
Dave Jessie


  #5  
Old May 14th 06, 09:50 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
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Default little flat mirrors

Eric wrote:

I had a thought - dangerous i know - what if you made a large parabolic
frame out of something like wood (you choose). Then you bought a few large
household mirrors and cut small round sections out of them and pasted them
onto the wood frame. Would you then have yourself a larger effective
mirror on the cheap? Would it work?
Eric

oh well....
  #6  
Old May 14th 06, 11:01 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
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Default little flat mirrors

The mirrors of this instrument are more like household ones than precision
optics. They form a light bucket to feed a large photomultiplier tube, with
an aperture of at least a couple of inches. (At least, that was the sensor
used 30 years ago, if memory serves.)

Its optics are basically similar to those of a solar collector. It might be
suitable for burning holes in steel plates using sunlight, although it was
probably never used for that purpose.

It didn't actually detect gamma rays. It was intended to observe
visible-light flashes produced by gammas in the upper atmosphere.


Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

"Dave Jessie" wrote in message
. ..
Dan Mckenna wrote:
Eric wrote:

(snip)
Take a look at this gamma ray telescope, it's 10 meters and not wood.

http://jelley.wustl.edu/Pages/images+hopkins.html


However (and it's a BIG however) is that each segment of the telescope
shown in the link are carefully figured parabolic mirrors in their own
right rather than 'small round sections' cut from household mirrors.
Boiling water or roasting chickens is about the limit of Eric's
configuration, I'm afraid - as an early reply suggested.

Clear Dark Steady Skies,
Dave Jessie



  #7  
Old May 14th 06, 11:47 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
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Default little flat mirrors

On 2006-05-14, Eric wrote:
I had a thought - dangerous i know - what if you made a large parabolic
frame out of something like wood (you choose). Then you bought a few large
household mirrors and cut small round sections out of them and pasted them
onto the wood frame. Would you then have yourself a larger effective mirror
on the cheap? Would it work?


You could make a nice solar furnace that way, but not something that
would make an image.

  #8  
Old May 15th 06, 11:25 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
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Default little flat mirrors

If you do that, you want to make the front surface of the mirrors accurate
to within a 1/4th wave at a minimum from one mirror to the other. Easy to
say but difficult to do in reality.

--
Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?


 




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