Whats the Maddest scope you've ever seen?

...and when I say 'MADDEST' I mean it in the scientific sense of:
Most innovative / unusual design.
(or just plain MAD as in ...er... the 'MAD' sense..
aaarea shur ye get my drift!)

I don't do MAD. Wierd, yes, but mad, no... well, apart from when the tiny little pixies start dancing around my screen... or are those pixels? Hmm... time for my evening Litheum and Gin...

Check out Dave Stevick's Wierd Telescopes page:
bhs.broo.k12.wv.us/homepage/alumni/dstevick/weird.htm

Phil.

I have an idea for a truly "mad" telescope.

I call it "The MUNT" (The Mad Unresolvable Nebula Telescope.)

Because nebulae like Orion's etc can never be "resolved" (they are composed of gas after all) they do not need top quality optics to brighten them up.
They need raw aperture.

This can be confirmed if you "defocus" stars and notice that this has little affect on the brightness of such nebulae.
Raw aperture,not "planetary precise one-tenth -wave-optics", should give marvellous views of unresolvable nebulae.
(This would also apply to wide field galaxies such as the Andromeda Galaxy-amateur telescopes can't resolve galaxies into stars.)

It seems to me that an amateur should be able to "spin-cast" a heated polymer into a paraboloidal shape.

After the polymer cools and hardens into the centrifugally induced paraboloidal shape, carefully cover it with mirror-tile stick-ons that you can get for bathroom tiles.

If you make your "2-meter-diameter F6" spin cast mirror like this in your back garden (Assuming you don't have a big shed) it should show stars and planets as defocussed "blobs" but I bet the Veil Nebula and Orion Nebula etc. would be ablaze with dazzling brilliance.

My MUNT gets the prize for "mad" I hope!

Peter.

Why go to all the trouble of spin casting expensive and messy compounds like epoxy resin or whatever when you can go really big and light with a large sheet of aluminised mylar stretched over a drum shaped frame. All you have to do then is pump out enough air to suck the mylar into the desired f/ratio curve. Remember, beyond f/12 you don't need the surface to be a parabola - a spherical surface will yield diffraction limited images! And if a bird takes a dump on your pride and joy... you just stretch a new sheet of mylar and start again. Aperture for pennies!

Phil.

PS - I've always thought this would be a great way of making the Birr telescope into a much better instrument - no need for cleaning (which is the reason the mirror is in such crappy condition... they cleaned it... badly!) It would also make it >much< mure reflective. All you would have to do is drill a small (0.5 - 1mm diameter) hole through the centre of the mrror and attach a non-return valve, and Bob's your uncle!

PPS - You can also make an awesome solar furnace this way - big apertures collect >a lot< of heat!!!

I had thought of that Philip........vacuum induced paraboloid.

It's more of a "good idea" than a "mad idea" though.

I just decided that "spinning molten perspex" would get the "mad" prize sooner.

Peter.

P.S.

Whoever cleaned the Birr Telescope "badly" should be tied up at the Prime Focus.

Then the telescope should be turned towards the Sun.

Peter.