Jun 30, 2022 11:41 PM
https://gizmodo.com/india-liquid-mirror-...1849124001
INTRO: . . . Called the International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT for short), the device’s main component is a layer of liquid mercury that floats on a very thin layer of compressed air. The quicksilver rotates, taking on a parabolic shape in the process—useful for focusing light from the night sky. By placing a camera at the focal point of the paraboloid, astronomers will then be able to image objects in the sky.
[...] “The main advantage is the relatively low cost of a large liquid mirror compared to a large conventional telescope mirror,” said Paul Hickson, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia who works on liquid mirror technologies, in an email to Gizmodo. “As an example, the cost of the ILMT is about one tenth that of the 3.6 metre [11.8-foot] Devasthal Optical Telescope — a conventional telescope of about the same size and located at the same place.”
And that place is pretty lofty. The telescope sits over 8,000 feet above sea level on India’s side of the Himalayas. It will scrutinize a strip of sky directly overhead that contains hundreds of thousands of galaxies and several thousand quasars, Hickson said... (MORE - missing details)
https://youtu.be/pFV4MLgw3po
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/pFV4MLgw3po
INTRO: . . . Called the International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT for short), the device’s main component is a layer of liquid mercury that floats on a very thin layer of compressed air. The quicksilver rotates, taking on a parabolic shape in the process—useful for focusing light from the night sky. By placing a camera at the focal point of the paraboloid, astronomers will then be able to image objects in the sky.
[...] “The main advantage is the relatively low cost of a large liquid mirror compared to a large conventional telescope mirror,” said Paul Hickson, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia who works on liquid mirror technologies, in an email to Gizmodo. “As an example, the cost of the ILMT is about one tenth that of the 3.6 metre [11.8-foot] Devasthal Optical Telescope — a conventional telescope of about the same size and located at the same place.”
And that place is pretty lofty. The telescope sits over 8,000 feet above sea level on India’s side of the Himalayas. It will scrutinize a strip of sky directly overhead that contains hundreds of thousands of galaxies and several thousand quasars, Hickson said... (MORE - missing details)
https://youtu.be/pFV4MLgw3po