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Figuring
Figuring is the process of final polishing of an optical surface to remove imperfections or modify the surface curvature to achieve the shape required for a given application. Types An example of figuring is that used in reflecting telescope primary mirrors in a process of converting the smooth spherical mirror produced by earlier stages into the aspherical or parabolic shapes needed to form the correct image. It is done by applying different polishing stroke lengths with different sized and shaped tools. Manual figuring is a very laborious process, since the heat produced by polishing has to be allowed to dissipate before the shape of the mirror can be measured again, and the places for later polishing selected. Testing of the figure is usually done by a Foucault knife-edge test or Ronchi test in amateur telescope making and with very sophisticated null testers on research telescope optics. For large mirrors, ion figuring is often used, in which a beam of neutral atoms is u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronchi Test
In optical testing a Ronchi test is a method of determining the surface shape (figure) of a mirror used in telescopes and other optical devices. Description In 1923 Italian physicist Vasco Ronchi published a description of the eponymous Ronchi test, which is a variation of the Foucault knife-edge test and which uses simple equipment to test the quality of optics, especially concave mirrors.Masud Mansuripur (July 1997) "The Ronchi test," ''Optics & Photonics News'', vol. 8, pages 42-46. Available on-line at: http://www.mmresearch.com/articles/article1/index.htm . A "Ronchi tester" consists of: *A light source *A Diffuser (optics), diffuser *A Ronchi grating A Ronchi grating consists of alternate dark and clear stripes. One design is a small frame with several evenly spaced fine wires attached. Light is emitted through the Ronchi grating (or a single slit), reflected by the mirror being tested, then passes through the Ronchi grating again and is observed by the person doing t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reflecting Telescope
A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternative to the refracting telescope which, at that time, was a design that suffered from severe chromatic aberration. Although reflecting telescopes produce other types of optical aberrations, it is a design that allows for very large diameter objectives. Almost all of the major telescopes used in astronomy research are reflectors. Many variant forms are in use and some employ extra optical elements to improve image quality or place the image in a mechanically advantageous position. Since reflecting telescopes use mirrors, the design is sometimes referred to as a catoptric telescope. From the time of Newton to the 1800s, the mirror itself was made of metal usually speculum metal. This type included Newton's first designs and even the larges ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Null Corrector
A null corrector is an optical device used in the testing of large aspheric mirrors. A spherical mirror of any size can be tested relatively easily using standard optical components such as laser, mirrors, beamsplitters, and converging lenses. One method of doing this using a ''Shack cube'' is shown at the right, and many other setups are possible. An interferometer test such as this one generates a contour map of the deviation of the surface from a perfect sphere, with the contours in units of half the wavelength used. This is called a ''null test'' because when the mirror is perfect, the result is null (no contours at all). If the result is not null, then the mirror is not perfect, and the pattern shows where the optician should polish the mirror to improve it. However, the mirrors used in modern telescopes are not spherical – they are rotations of parabolas or hyperbolas, since these more complex shapes reduce optical aberrations and give a larger field of view. (See, f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hubble Mirror Polishing
The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versatile, renowned both as a vital research tool and as a public relations boon for astronomy. The Hubble telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble and is one of NASA's Great Observatories. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) selects Hubble's targets and processes the resulting data, while the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) controls the spacecraft. Hubble features a mirror, and its five main instruments observe in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hubble's orbit outside the distortion of Earth's atmosphere allows it to capture extremely high-resolution images with substantially lower background light than ground-based telescopes. It has recorded some of the most detail ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polishing
Polishing is the process of creating a smooth and shiny surface by rubbing it or by applying a chemical treatment, leaving a clean surface with a significant specular reflection (still limited by the index of refraction of the material according to the Fresnel equations). In some materials (such as metals, glasses, black or transparent stones), polishing is also able to reduce diffuse reflection to minimal values. When an unpolished surface is magnified thousands of times, it usually looks like a succession of mountains and valleys. By repeated abrasion, those "mountains" are worn down until they are flat or just small "hills." The process of polishing with abrasives starts with a coarse grain size and gradually proceeds to the finer ones to efficiently flatten the surface imperfections and to obtain optimal results. Mechanical properties The strength of polished products can be higher than their unpolished counterparts owing to the removal of stress concentrations prese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Primary Mirror
A primary mirror (or primary) is the principal light-gathering surface (the objective) of a reflecting telescope. Description The primary mirror of a reflecting telescope is a spherical or parabolic shaped disks of polished reflective metal (speculum metal up to the mid 19th century), or in later telescopes, glass or other material coated with a reflective layer. One of the first known reflecting telescopes, Newton's reflector of 1668, used a 3.3 cm polished metal primary mirror. The next major change was to use silver on glass rather than metal, in the 19th century such was with the Crossley reflector. This was changed to vacuum deposited aluminum on glass, used on the 200-inch Hale telescope. Solid primary mirrors have to sustain their own weight and not deform under gravity, which limits the maximum size for a single piece primary mirror. Segmented mirror configurations are used to get around the size limitation on single primary mirrors. For example, the Giant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parabolic Reflector
A parabolic (or paraboloid or paraboloidal) reflector (or dish or mirror) is a reflective surface used to collect or project energy such as light, sound, or radio waves. Its shape is part of a circular paraboloid, that is, the surface generated by a parabola revolving around its axis. The parabolic reflector transforms an incoming plane wave travelling along the axis into a spherical wave converging toward the focus. Conversely, a spherical wave generated by a point source placed in the focus is reflected into a plane wave propagating as a collimated beam along the axis. Parabolic reflectors are used to collect energy from a distant source (for example sound waves or incoming star light). Since the principles of reflection are reversible, parabolic reflectors can also be used to collimate radiation from an isotropic source into a parallel beam. In optics, parabolic mirrors are used to gather light in reflecting telescopes and solar furnaces, and project a beam of lig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foucault Knife-edge Test
The Foucault knife-edge test is an optical test to accurately measure the shape of concave curved mirrors. It is commonly used by amateur telescope makers for figuring primary mirrors in reflecting telescopes. It uses a relatively simple, inexpensive apparatus compared to other testing techniques. Overview The Foucault knife-edge test was described in 1858 by French physicist Léon Foucault as a way to measure conic shapes of optical mirrors. It measures mirror surface dimensions by reflecting light into a knife edge at or near the mirror's centre of curvature. In doing so, it only needs a tester which in its most basic 19th century form consists of a light bulb, a piece of tinfoil with a pinhole in it, and a razor blade to create the knife edge. The testing device is adjustable along the X-axis (knife cut direction) across the Y-axis (optical axis), and is usually equipped with measurable adjustment to 0.001 inch (25 µm) or better along lines parallel to the optical axi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amateur Telescope Making
''Amateur Telescope Making'' (''ATM'') is a series of three books edited by Albert G. Ingalls between 1926 and 1953 while he was an associate editor at ''Scientific American''. The books cover various aspects of telescope construction and observational technique, sometimes at quite an advanced level, but always in a way that is accessible to the intelligent amateur. The caliber of the contributions is uniformly high and the books have remained in constant use by both amateurs and professionals. The first volume was essentially a reprinting of articles written by Ingalls and Russell W. Porter for Ingalls's monthly column "The Backyard Astronomer" (later "The Amateur Scientist") in the 1920s. It also featured numerous drawings by Porter. The two later volumes contained chapters written by James Gilbert Baker, George Ellery Hale, George Willis Ritchey and others on topics ranging from lens grinding to monochromators to photoelectric photometry. Much of the information, including P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ion Figuring
An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convention. The net charge of an ion is not zero because its total number of electrons is unequal to its total number of protons. A cation is a positively charged ion with fewer electrons than protons while an anion is a negatively charged ion with more electrons than protons. Opposite electric charges are pulled towards one another by electrostatic force, so cations and anions attract each other and readily form ionic compounds. Ions consisting of only a single atom are termed atomic or monatomic ions, while two or more atoms form molecular ions or polyatomic ions. In the case of physical ionization in a fluid (gas or liquid), "ion pairs" are created by spontaneous molecule collisions, where each generated pair consists of a free electron and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Segmented Mirror
A segmented mirror is an array of smaller mirrors designed to act as segments of a single large curved mirror. The segments can be either spherical or asymmetric (if they are part of a larger parabolic reflector). They are used as objectives for large reflecting telescopes. To function, all the mirror segments have to be polished to a precise shape and actively aligned by a computer-controlled active optics system using actuators built into the mirror support cell. The concept was pioneered by Guido Horn D'Arturo, who built the first working segmented mirror in 1952, after twenty years of research; It was later independently rediscovered and further developed under the leadership of Dr. Jerry Nelson at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California during the 1980s, and since then all the necessaries technologies have spread worldwide to the point that essentially all future large optical telescopes plan to use segmented mirrors. Application There ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keck Telescope
The W. M. Keck Observatory is an astronomical observatory with two telescopes at an elevation of 4,145 meters (13,600 ft) near the summit of Mauna Kea in the U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ... of Hawaii. Both telescopes have aperture primary mirrors, and when completed in 1993 (Keck 1) and 1996 (Keck 2) were the List of largest optical reflecting telescopes, largest astronomical telescopes in the world. They are currently the 3rd and 4th largest. Overview With a concept first proposed in 1977, telescope designers at the University of California, Berkeley (Terry Mast) and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (Jerry Nelson (astronomer), Jerry Nelson) had been developing the technology necessary to build a large, ground-based telescope. With a design in h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
