Quote:
Originally Posted by bojan
IMHO, this mirror could not support itself.. I bet even the weight of mylar is deforming it enough to render it useless.. we are talking here about 1/10 of visible light wavelength.. 0.04um.
But then again, I might be wrong..
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bojan, I see where you're coming from and understand the accuracy required.
What gets me is the documentation I have read and what was said to me by Peter Waddell all the way back in the late 80's.
Up until joining this forum (fabulous by the way.great blokes!
),I was lead to believe that the mirror is allways used in a vertical position, so how can the figure be of any use?
Secondly,the U.K Astronomical society used a mylar prototype mirror made by Waddell(who presented it one night) and were impressed sufficiently by the images it produced...apprently.
The spiel on the mirror technology ''applications'' lists ''high quality telescope optics'' at a fraction of the weight and cost amongst other uses
There was also an interrview with Waddell where he stated that ''indivudual hairs'' on a person's face could easily be resolved?
Now, I don't know where the B.S. starts or ends and where the truth lies here
I do know that if it takes ultra high precision machining and polishing of the edges that come in contact with the mylar, and that the method of clamping and selecting the ''appropriate mylar''(another Waddell statement) are all critical to the thing working, I'll forget about it instantly
By the way, got some more info from the ''cfree lightweight mirrors'' mob(link I provided earlier on).
They have made a 20inch mirror but it suffers from abberation caused by inperfections on the mold and dust particles in the air.They stated that a ''clean room'' is very important in making good mirrors.
They are at the early stages of research and development.
I would suggest that we keep an eye on these guys as they have a revolutionary(we'll see?) system in process here and they have asked me to keep in touch with them..............something about September this year was mentioned, so I guess that this is when they will begin the serious part of the development?
Cheers,
Rob.