London has a solar furnace !

[Wavytone]

Buildings with acres of glass and curved surfaces are the big thing in London - the shard, and the faberge "egg" being just two. Now this one, full of curves. But it seems someone forgot what happens when the sun is reflected by a concave mirror...

http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/sun-reflecting-from-skyscraper-melts-parked-jaguar-20130903-2t1om.html

[LewisM]

I seem to recall there was a building in Brisbane that reflected SO much into the adjacent buildings that the air con bills in the adjacents SOARED after the building was completed. I forget the remedy, but I think the new building had to replace all the mirrored glass with tinted.

[Camelopardalis]

The Sun usually isn't that much of a problem because its hidden by the clouds :D

[OzEclipse]

The visitors centre at Siding Spring had the same problem. There was a curved mosaic mirror - a reproduction of the Narrabri Stellar Intensity Interferometer at the back - I think it was the entry to a theatre. A few months after it opened, when the rising sun changed azimuth, it melted the cash register. Amazing that astronomers didn't realize what happens when you bounce sunlight off a curved surface.

Joe

[LewisM]

Art getting in the way of science no doubt.

I am sure astronomers completely ignored/overlooked the sculpture as just an irrelevant nothingness :)

[skysurfer]

Funny news.

By the end of May I pointed my 40cm Dob in afternoon at Jupiter (still east of Sun) and noticed lots of heat: the Sun's reflection close to my head !

I took a newspaper and kept it in the focal point: about 20cm outside the tube and it started smoking instantly ....

So using a larger Dob in daytime might be a potential fire hazard !

[barx1963]

We are in the UK at the moment and this is all over the news here!

Malcolm

[ZeroID]

Hoo Boy, big astro Mirror !! Has anyone figured out the f number ? And how big th secondary needs to be ? Not to mention the mirror cell !!! ??? GUIPLOP is going to have a fit !!! :P

Somebody grab an EP and get down on the street at night. Check it out !!!:eyepop:


:D :rofl:

[DavidU]

Ah, it's a fry scraper.:lol:

[bojan]

There is another one, somewhere in Texas, USA.. I found the page couple of years ago.
It's not this one:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2165423/Museum-tower-Mirrored-Dallas-skyscraper-drawing-complaints-city-dwellers-blinded-reflection.html

[AstralTraveller]

This pic was posted here some time ago, forget where.

[avandonk]

Reminds me of the old joke about some south American country getting even with a referee they did not like by issuing all the spectators to a final match with large aluminised programs. When the referee gave an obvious wrong decision all the spectators aligned their programs to mirror the Sun and fried the referee. One for the Mythbusters.


Bert