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In contrast to household mirrors, where the reflecting metal layer is coated on the back of a glass pane and covered with a protective varnish, precision optical equipment like telescopes needs first surface mirrors that can be ground and polished into complex shapes such as parabolic reflectors. For nearly 200 years speculum metal was the only ...
In 1966, Hans Elsässer, the founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), asked the company if it could produce large castings of almost 4 meters using low-expansion glass-ceramic for telescope mirror substrates. In 1969, the MPIA ordered a 3.6 m (12 ft) mirror blank, along with ten smaller mirror substrates.
A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternative to the refracting telescope which, at that time, was a design that suffered from severe chromatic ...
Objective: The first lens or curved mirror that collects and focuses the incoming light. Primary lens: The objective of a refracting telescope. Primary mirror: The objective of a reflecting telescope. Corrector plate: A full aperture negative lens placed before a primary mirror designed to correct the optical aberrations of the mirror.
The main material used early on for reflecting telescope mirrors was speculum metal, which reflected only about two-thirds of the incident light, and which tarnished, requiring maintenance. Two-element refracting telescopes were extensively used in 19th century observatories despite their smaller apertures than metal, and later glass, mirror ...
Parsons improved the techniques of casting, grinding and polishing large telescope mirrors from speculum metal, and constructed steam-powered grinding machines for parabolic mirrors. His 3 foot (91 cm) mirror of 1839 was cast in smaller pieces and then fitted together before grinding and polishing; its 1840 successor was cast in a single piece.