Re: [ATM] the future of amateur telescope making and amateur astronomy

[James Lerch <jlerch1@tampabay.rr.com>]

Mel Bartels wrote:
> What do you think the future of telescope making and amateur astronomy will
> be like?
Self Cleaning Optical Coatings, both reflective and refractive.

Active Dynamic Dampening.  OTA, Mount, and environmental vibrations and 
oscillations will be actively dampened via distributed electromagnetic 
mass drivers controlled by a single board computer using inputs from 3 
axis accelerometers and ring laser gyroscopes.  

"Plop and shoot".  Plop the Alt/Az scope with built in field de-rotator 
on the ground, "sensors" figure out where and how it's sitting, 
initializes itself and is ready for an imaging session without user 
intervention.  

Electronically Adjustable Band Pass (or Reject) Optical Filters.  Kind 
of like the existing Fabry-Perot Filters, but simpler and more robust.  
It will have an adjustment for both the center and width of the bandpass 
wavelength.   Put this in front of a B/W CCD array and indulge in your 
narrow band imaging obsessions.. :)  BTW, how cool would it be to have a 
knob that "Scrolled" thru the frequency band in real time (like an FM 
radio) while viewing thru a meter plus class instrument.

Going out on a limb,  Combine the 3D plastic prototype "printing" 
process with the vacuum grown synthetic diamond crystal slabs we will 
need for next get super computers, and we will convert methane into 
diamond primary mirrors that will exit the vacuum chamber perfectly 
figured, coated and ready for mounting.

-- 
Take Care,
James Lerch
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm (My telescope construction,testing, and coating site)
http://lerch.no-ip.com/ChangFa_Gen (My 15KW generator project)

"Anything that can happen, will happen" -Stephen Pollock from:
"Particle Physics for Non-Physicists: A Tour of the Microcosmos"

" Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. " 

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