Re: ATM help - foucault test interpretation

["Bob May" <bobmay@nethere.com>]

I know of no one site that has all of the variations of what can be seen.
Have you seen my article on the Foucault test?  It gives a fairly decent
explaination of how the shadows form on the surface of the mirror.
FWIW, if the slit and the KE are properly aligned (parallel to each other)
the shadows on the mirror should go parallel to the KE.  If the slit and KE
aren't aligned properly, you will see all kinds of strangeness in the image.
I use a slitless tester to eliminate this particular problem from the test.
You may reconsider and put your light source behind the KE at the bottom so
that you can use this good simple version of the tester.
Bob May
http://nav.to/bobmay
bobmay@nethere.com
NEW! http://bobmay.astronomy.net