Related papers: Liquid Mirror Telescopes: A Review
The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer is a NASA-funded nulling and imaging instrument designed to coherently combine the two 8.4-m primary mirrors of the LBT for high-sensitivity, high-contrast, and high-resolution infrared imaging…
We discuss a new technology that promises large inexpensive mirrors. We argue that it should be possible to tilt a rotating viscous liquid by perhaps as much as a few tens of degrees. The tilted liquid parabolic surface is used as the…
We review the current status of the facility instrumentation for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). The LBT has 2x 8.4m primary mirrors on a single mount with an effective collecting area of 11.8m or 23m when interferometrically combined.…
The International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) is a 4-meter class survey telescope. It achieved its first light on 29$^{\rm th}$ April 2022 and is now undergoing the commissioning phase. It scans the sky in a fixed \ang{;22;} wide strip…
We give a generic description of a liquid mirror system and summarize some practical information useful to making them. We compare laboratory measurements of deformations, due to the weight of mercury on the container of a 3.7-m mirror and…
Devasthal, located in the Kumaun region of Himalayas is emerging as one of the best optical astronomy site in the continent. The minimum recorded ground level atmospheric seeing at the site is 0.6 arcsec with median value at 1.1 arcsec.…
The 4m International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) continuously scans a 22$'$ wide strip of the zenithal sky and records the images in three broadband filters (g', r' and i') using a 4K$\times$4K CCD camera. In about 10--12 hours of…
Large aperture telescopes are pivotal for exploring the universe, yet even with state-of-the-art manufacturing and launch technology, their size is limited to several meters. As we aim to build larger telescopes - extending tens of meters -…
NRT is an international project to build and operate the world's largest robotic telescope. The telescope will have a segmented primary mirror with an equivalent diameter of 4 m, a set of simultaneously mounted optical and near-infrared…
The recently commissioned 3.6-m Devasthal optical telescope has been used for various tests and science observations using three main instruments, namely, a charge-coupled device camera, a near-infrared camera, and an optical…
The Large Binocular Telescope, with its expansive collecting area, angular resolving power, and advanced optical design, provides a robust platform for development and operation of advanced instrumentation for astronomical research. The LBT…
Diffraction experiments have moved to ever heavier objects in recent years, now standing at the level of large molecules. Experiments in materials science on the other hand have come down to ever smaller sizes largely due to the success of…
The advent of extremely large telescopes will bring unprecedented light-collecting power and spatial resolution, but it will also lead to a significant increase in the size and complexity of focal-plane instruments. The use of freeform…
This paper describes outstanding issues in astrophysics and cosmology that can be solved by astronomical observations in a broad spectral range from far infrared to millimeter wavelengths. The discussed problems related to the formation of…
The Thirty-Meter Telescope is an ambitious project to build a giant segmented mirror telescope with fully integrated adaptive optics systems that will produce diffraction-limited images. A powerful suite of instruments is being developed…
The size of the optics used in observatories is often limited by fabrication, metrology, and handling technology, but having a large primary mirror provides significant benefits for scientific research. The evolution of rocket launch…
The International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) is a 4-meter class survey telescope that has recently achieved first light and is expected to swing into full operations by 1st January 2023. It scans the sky in a fixed 22' wide strip…
We have built and tested a 3.7-m diameter liquid mirror that rotates on a ball bearing. We have carried out extensive optical tests. We find that although the ball bearing has a poor quality, the quality of the mirror, with mercury layers…
We propose the segmented Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT/GTM),as the largest spatial light modulator capable of producing vortex beams of integer topological charge. This observing mode could be applied for direct exoplanet searches in the…
We introduce our new program to develop two-dimensional MEMS arrays of individually addressable micro-mirrors (''Micro-Mirror Devices'', MMDs) specifically optimized for astronomy, multi-slit spectroscopy in particular. After reviewing the…