Re: [ATM] (OT) Moon scope

[Dominic-Luc Webb <dlwebb@canit.se>]

On Wed, 20 Jun 2007, Thomas A Simmons wrote:

> http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070618/full/070618-11.html
>
> Tom
> Tucson, AZ

This actually crops up from time to time, even on this list. These
spun mercury mirrors have been used for a number of years now by
a Canadian group. The environmentalists are going to kill us if
we all start using large amounts of mercury. I am not so sure
mercury is required either. Any liquid can be spun and I have
wondered if someone would try with water or water with additives.
Tilting seems intuitively to be very challenging, and note the
bottom line of that article even "points" to the fact that it
can only be aimed straight up. Who know, maybe they (or someone
in here) will come up with some mechanical compensation to permit
tilting. That would be impressive because it could make very
large aperture scopes practical for us mortals.

Dominic


_______________________________________________
ATM mailing list http://www.atmlist.net/