A different optical telescope

I suggest making a reflector optical telescope with a diameter of 100 yards
or more. Instead of using a highly polished mirror, which is very expensive
even for a small one, I suggest using the reflective surface of good quality
aluminum foil for the concave mirror to gather very much light and focus it
to the focal point of the telescope. The aluminum foil can be glued to the
surface of a plastic concave surface, that is manufactured in sections, and
assembled with a hundred yard or more diameter. Aluminum supports can be
used to hold this huge concave plastic structure.
I know that the reflectivity of aluminum foil is not as good as a polished
mirror, however I think that you could get a higher magnification image
(that is clear enough) because of the much larger diameter of the reflector,
which will gather much more light. A computer program could be designed to
clean up the image, to make it clearer, if that seems to be necessary.
Since the most expensive part of a reflector optical telescope is the
polished mirror, this use of aluminum foil could allow for a much more
powerful optical telescope with much less expence.
The mechanics of moving this large reflector telescope and housing it are
engineering problems that could be worked out.



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I suggest making a reflector optical telescope with a diameter of 100 yards
or more. Instead of using a highly polished mirror, which is very
expensive
even for a small one...

The goal is higher resolution. That means that the roughness of the
reflecting surface must be small in relation to the diameter of the mirror.
You are suggesting that you increase both the roughness and the diameter.
Why do you think the ratio would be any better? Why do you think that the
construction would be less expensive?

The goal is higher resolution. That means that the roughness of the
reflecting surface must be small in relation to the diameter of the
mirror. You are suggesting that you increase both the roughness and the
diameter. Why do you think the ratio would be any better? Why do you think
that the construction would be less expensive?

Also, don't forget the other important effort of isolating the telescope
from vibration and thermal effects, etc. That seems to me to be much more
expensive as you scale up the size of the device.

The only reason I can see for going to a larger diameter is to look at
longer wavelength information. Google on "Arecibo radio telescope".

"odin" wrote in message
...
The only reason I can see for going to a larger diameter is to look at
longer wavelength information. Google on "Arecibo radio telescope".

The amount of light an objective mirror gathers (aka "light gathering
power")
http://www.twcac.org/Tutorials/lightgathering_power.htm
is roughly proportional to its area. More LGP means brighter images and/or
shorter photographic exposures - equivalent to a 'fast' camera lens.


Tom Davidson
Richmond, VA

Also, don't forget the other important effort of isolating the telescope
from vibration and thermal effects, etc. That seems to me to be much more
expensive as you scale up the size of the device.

Oh yes, and moving it around to aim it pointing at different positions in
the sky?

"odin" wrote in message
om...
I suggest making a reflector optical telescope with a diameter of 100
yards
or more. Instead of using a highly polished mirror, which is very
expensive
even for a small one...

The goal is higher resolution. That means that the roughness of the
reflecting surface must be small in relation to the diameter of the
mirror. You are suggesting that you increase both the roughness and the
diameter. Why do you think the ratio would be any better? Why do you
think that the construction would be less expensive?
Actually, it is not the diameter of the mirror that 'matters', in terms of
the surface accuracy, buy the wavelength you are trying to view/image.
What is described, would work fine, for wavelengths in excess of a few cm
(a radio telescope), but for visible light, the surface would be thousands
of times too rough...

Best Wishes

"stone" wrote in message
...
I suggest making a reflector optical telescope with a diameter of 100 yards
or more. Instead of using a highly polished mirror, which is very
expensive
even for a small one, I suggest using the reflective surface of good
quality
aluminum foil

Thousands of PhDs in optical engineering and this bloke comes out of the
blue with something.... ah...

"Lorem Ipsum" wrote in message
...

"stone" wrote in message
...
I suggest making a reflector optical telescope with a diameter of 100
yards
or more. Instead of using a highly polished mirror, which is very
expensive
even for a small one, I suggest using the reflective surface of good
quality
aluminum foil

Thousands of PhDs in optical engineering and this bloke comes out of the
blue with something.... ah...

I'm guessing the OP has never *heard* of optical engineering. This seems
like the kind of question a clever middle-school student (or an imaginative
high school student) with a limited exposure (pun) to basic physics or
optics might ask.


Tom Davidson
Richmond, VA

"stone" wrote in
:

I suggest making a reflector optical telescope with a diameter of 100
yards or more. Instead of using a highly polished mirror, which is very
expensive even for a small one, I suggest using the reflective surface
of good quality aluminum foil for the concave mirror to gather very much
light and focus it to the focal point of the telescope. The aluminum
foil can be glued to the surface of a plastic concave surface, that is
manufactured in sections, and assembled with a hundred yard or more
diameter. Aluminum supports can be used to hold this huge concave
plastic structure. I know that the reflectivity of aluminum foil is not
as good as a polished mirror,

Dead on arrival. The wavefront error of aluminium foil stuck onto plastic
is too great for visible light. The polishing of mirrors is done to achieve
high surface accuracy, not high reflectivity. The OWL project intends to
build a segmented mirror project of similar size the the one you are
suggesting.

http://www.eso.org/projects/owl/OWL_design.html

Klazmon.


SNIP