Adrena1in
15th of October 2008 (Wed), 08:12
Anyone ever had a good idea for a new invention, but then found out it's already been done?
I was telling my dad about Schmidt-Cassegrain and Matsukov-Cassegrain scopes the other day, after sending him some moon shots. Told him that Cassegrains have short tubes, but long focal-lengths, so are good for high magnification.
But I got to thinking...the light passes into the scope, bounces directly back off a mirror, hits a second mirror (which sits in the middle of the original path of light), and finally makes it's way to the eyepiece. (I gather the arrangement of lenses and mirrors varies between each scope, but the concept is essentially the same.)
So I thought to myself, "Why not shift the mirrors about? Why not have the light come into the scope, bounce at a slight angle off the first mirror, back to the second mirror which sits *beside* the front opening, so it doesn't get in the way of the original light path? This would make for a better image."
Turns out it's already been done, but I think it's quite a new idea.
http://www.zerochromat.com/
Sexy looking scopes.
Anyway, here's a quick picture of the lovely Double Cluster in Perseus.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6205/doubleclustersmalldp7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/doubleclustersmalldp7.jpg/1/w1282.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img98/doubleclustersmalldp7.jpg/1/)
I was telling my dad about Schmidt-Cassegrain and Matsukov-Cassegrain scopes the other day, after sending him some moon shots. Told him that Cassegrains have short tubes, but long focal-lengths, so are good for high magnification.
But I got to thinking...the light passes into the scope, bounces directly back off a mirror, hits a second mirror (which sits in the middle of the original path of light), and finally makes it's way to the eyepiece. (I gather the arrangement of lenses and mirrors varies between each scope, but the concept is essentially the same.)
So I thought to myself, "Why not shift the mirrors about? Why not have the light come into the scope, bounce at a slight angle off the first mirror, back to the second mirror which sits *beside* the front opening, so it doesn't get in the way of the original light path? This would make for a better image."
Turns out it's already been done, but I think it's quite a new idea.
http://www.zerochromat.com/
Sexy looking scopes.
Anyway, here's a quick picture of the lovely Double Cluster in Perseus.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6205/doubleclustersmalldp7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/doubleclustersmalldp7.jpg/1/w1282.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img98/doubleclustersmalldp7.jpg/1/)