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Now, if only we had a cheap way to make perfect paraboloids for giant cheap Newtonian telescopes!
by civilized 4y ago
Now, if only we had a cheap way to make perfect paraboloids for giant cheap Newtonian telescopes!
- tejtm 4y ago"sweat equity" is as cheap as you are willing to work ... after reading the article, spherical lenses are great in many many applications, there is still a place for aspheric optics one of which is large aperture telescopes you can reach without an orchard ladder or drone. the sibling comment on spinning fluids does lead the question; can the researchers vary the density of their neutral fluid (or polymer) to gradually vary the "local" forces shaping the lens
- dsr_ 4y agoLike, say, spinning a dense liquid in a container against gravity?
- jerome-jh 4y agoSounds like you could cure the polymer while the container is spinning... The original idea (polymer lenses) is definitely a huge potential for amateur astronomes making large refracting telescopes. At the end of the article they mention being able to make large mirrors with liquid metal using the same technique as for the lenses. I do not quite understand how this is supposed to work.
- avidiax 4y agoWe sort-of do. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid-mirror_telescope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid-mirror_telescope
- civilized 4y agoExtremely cool but apparently less useful than one might hope.