Can you use a acrylic parabolic mirror for a telescope?

Can you use a acrylic parabolic mirror for a telescope?

The acrylic parabolic reflectors commonly sold for solar ovens, are not optically perfect enough for usage in a telescope. And grinding down such a mirror so that it is optically perfect would require just as much work (cost) as a glass one.

Which mirror is used in reflecting telescope?

concave mirror
The Reflecting Telescope or Reflector uses a concave mirror as the telescope’s Primary Objective, rather than a lens or lenses.

Can you use a flat mirror for a telescope?

It usually has a paraboloid primary mirror but at focal ratios of f/8 or longer a spherical primary mirror can be sufficient for high visual resolution. A flat secondary mirror reflects the light to a focal plane at the side of the top of the telescope tube.

How do you make a parabolic reflector?

The easiest way is to cut and fold a flat sheet into a parabolic dish. Then glue a layer of aluminum foil on its inner surface, for reflectivity. The flat sheet can be as cheap as cardboard. However water resistant material, such as plastic or metal, will last longer.

What is the ideal shape of concave mirrors used in telescopes?

Mirror shape Most curved mirrors have a spherical profile. These are the simplest to make, and it is the best shape for general-purpose use. Spherical mirrors, however, suffer from spherical aberration—parallel rays reflected from such mirrors do not focus to a single point.

Can you make a telescope mirror?

Even though some builders prefer to buy commercial mirrors and fit them in a DIY structure, I believe that making a telescope mirror is probably the most rewarding part of the whole built. Starting from a rough glass blank, you can obtain an almost perfect parabola with surface errors in the range of 20 to 60 nm.

How to fix a broken primary mirror on a telescope?

Step #1: Remove the primary mirror. Your telescope’s main mirror is housed in a cell that normally attaches to the tube with a few small screws. Before removing these, stick a small strip of masking tape to the mirror cell and tube to index it so that you can put it back together the same way.

What is a reflector telescope and how does it work?

Instead of the usual lenses found in other types, your reflector telescope makes use of large concave mirrors to both gather and focus light. Due to its good visibility and price range, a reflector telescope is perfect for beginners. Which is probably the reason why you have one right now you telescopic novice you.

How do you dot the center of a primary mirror?

Centre-Dotting Your Scope’s Primary Mirror 1 Step #1: Remove the primary mirror. 2 Step #2: Make a mirror mask. 3 Step #3: Dot the centre of the mirror. 4 Step #4: Add the “doughnut.” This step is necessary because seeing a tiny dot while looking in your scope’s focuser is very difficult — especially in the dark.

How do you ground a mirror to make it opaque?

Set at the right angle it will start to make a concave curve in the glass.The angle determines how deep you want the center of the mirror to be. This is called the “sagitta”. [Fig 5]After you’ve ground the glass to the desired depth the mirrors surface will be opaque like this.