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Old 27-07-2017, 11:34 PM
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OzEclipse (Joe Cali)
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Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: '34 South' Young Hilltops LGA, Australia
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An interferometer, the Narrabri Stellar interferometer that operated from 1963 to 1974 was constructed of many 15 inch polygon cut mirrors.

Modern professional large telescopes are being made as multi-segment mirrors with the segments driven to provide adaptive optics - optics that adapt to atmospheric changes.

You would be hard pressed to align all the mirror tile segments to the required accuracy. All the tiles would have to have their curved surfaces sit on the theoreticalperfect curved surface with errors less than than 100 nanometers just to perform like a mediocre mirror.

Joe
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