The "Enormous Space Telescope"

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AntennaGuy United States of America
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The "Enormous Space Telescope"

#1

Post by AntennaGuy »


* Meade 323 refractor on a manual equatorial mount.
* Celestron C6 SCT on a Twilight 1 Alt-Az mount
Prof. Barnhardt to Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still: "There are several thousand questions I'd like to ask you.”
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The Happy Parrot
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Re: The "Enormous Space Telescope"

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Post by The Happy Parrot »


To think that the cube sat demo telescope, with twice the aperture of the upcoming Webb telescope, weighs less than my 200mm Dob. Ingenious, I hope it happens.
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Re: The "Enormous Space Telescope"

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Post by AntennaGuy »


A small number of inflatable/deployable thin-film space-borne parabolic dish antennas have actually been built (see, for example http://www.lgarde.com/antennas-2/ ) . Needless to say, these aren't easy. Given the vast gulf (~5 orders of magnitude) between visible and microwave wavelengths, I consider the engineering challenges involved in maintaining the necessary tolerances for an optical system that leverages this class of technology to be... mind-boggling. But perhaps, maybe, someday, we'll see it happen!
* Meade 323 refractor on a manual equatorial mount.
* Celestron C6 SCT on a Twilight 1 Alt-Az mount
Prof. Barnhardt to Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still: "There are several thousand questions I'd like to ask you.”
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