Back to Home

ATM Forum Message

Forums: Atm · Astrophotography · Blackholes · Blackholes2 · CCD · Celestron · Domes · Education
Eyepieces · Meade · Misc. · God and Science · SETI · Software · UFO · XEphem
RSS Button

Home | Discussion Forums | Amateur Telescope Making | Post
Login

Be the first pioneers to continue the Astronomy Discussions at our new Astronomy meeting place...
The Space and Astronomy Agora
Read Carefully

Forum List | Follow Ups | Post Message | Back to Thread Topics | In Response To
Posted by Rick Crockett on January 23, 2000 01:53:52 UTC

: Check out this link on spherical mirror warping: : http://tempest.idle.com/~markv/spherical.html : I believe this is what Joe was referring to. : : This is a good idea in that a relatively easy to make spherical mirror is warped into a paraboloid. However I have wondered if the warping is uneven and causes astigmatism.

You want to read that page carefully. The author is using precision ground, polished and figured mirrors that are spheriods already and they are full thickness masking the error. The author states that a little tension pulls the sphere into a paraboloid which is technically not correct. The figure will be a hyperbaloid but by having a fairly small diameter and a fairly thick mirror with a sphere already polished into it, it could look like a paraboloid. The author mentions that with more tweeking it is pulled into hyperbaloid which is exactly what it becam as soon as it was deformed from the sphere. The eccentricity of radius for a sphere is zero. There are not degress of spherocity. Same goes a paraboloid with an eccentricity of 1. The hyperbola can be near paraboloid or to an extreme. Extreme is what you will get if you try thin mirrors, large mirrors and non sphere mirrors. You can take a sphere and using vacuum deform it into a parabola but not by using a bolt. I strongly encourage experimentation but you also should be familiar enough with the laws of physics and mathmatics to know what to expect.

Enjoy Experimenting -Rick

Follow Ups:

Login to Post
Additional Information
Google
 
Web www.astronomy.net
DayNightLine
About Astronomy Net | Advertise on Astronomy Net | Contact & Comments | Privacy Policy
Unless otherwise specified, web site content Copyright 1994-2024 John Huggins All Rights Reserved
Forum posts are Copyright their authors as specified in the heading above the post.
"dbHTML," "AstroGuide," "ASTRONOMY.NET" & "VA.NET"
are trademarks of John Huggins