Re: [ATM] Metallic Mirrors Vol 9, Issue 20

["Richard Schwartz" <richas@earthlink.net>]

All this spinning stuff...   everybody knows that spinning mercury mirrors
can not possibly work; otherwise large observatories would be using them.
Also, everybody knows that you can't spin molten glass to form a parabola!
Otherwise, it would have been tried by the pioneers of the 1930's.   None of
that spinning stuff is in any of the books from those times.  Nah.... it
can't work.

. . . Richard

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <artbianconi@blast.net>
To: <atm@atmlist.net>
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 1:29 AM
Subject: [ATM] Metallic Mirrors Vol 9, Issue 20


> In the past I thought what it might be like,  making a parabolic
> mirror out of molten glass, using centrifugal force to generate
> the curve.
>
> Pour the lava like stuff on a rotating platen and let the
> centrifugal force "stretch" the glass into a concave meniscus. I
> have not a clue if anyone has ever made a mirror that way.
>
> Then I saw these posts on metallic mirrors and wondered what it
> would be like to spin a quart of room temp mercury into a
> parabolic shape. Change the f stop by speeding up or slowing down
> the "dish"! I wonder if mercury would be reflective enough.
>
> I allow myself to think "unthinkable", out of the box thoughts
> once a month. Some, like this one,  can be expressed in public!
>
> Art
>
>
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