The Lunatic off-axis Newtonian Reflector: 136,000,000" @ f/120

[themos]

If we turned the entire earth-facing side of the Moon into a mirror...

Exercise: Design an eyepiece, calculate the field of view, the resolving power and the limiting magnitude.

Drawback: Can't be used for Lunar observation

[barkis]

Is the focal length going to be sufficient to leave the mirror as a sphere,or how are we going to parabolize it if otherwise. We are going to need a lot of robots equipped with small lapping tools. Are we going to deposit a silver coating, or explode some aluminium filaments and hope they settle evenly over the whole surface. Shall we give it a Silicon overcoat. How are we going to suspend the viewer at the focus.

Would it not be more modest to excavate Copernicus and start small. At least we will have learned to cope with the inevitable pitfalls before tackling the big one. Actually, I think we should incorporate attitude jets around the lunar limbs to give is some positional control.

OK, when do we start.

Sorry, forgot about the eyepiece FOV. I will get to work on it.

Ron.

[themos]

At f/120, I think we are safe with spherical.

f/120 was chosen so that the focus is at Earth surface (more or less, the moon goes in and out).

The mirror will be segmented, of course.

[Akyra]

What if an meteor hit the mirror?

[Newastro]

More worryingly - What happens when the sun hits the mirror at the right time/angle? :sunny: Still I guess we could all get a good sun tan simultaneously

[barkis]

More worryingly - What happens when the sun hits the mirror at the right time/angle? :sunny: Still I guess we could all get a good sun tan simultaneously

I would not want to be standing at the focal point. Instant frazzle.

[themos]

Meteor? You lose some segments.

Sunlight: Segmented "active" mirror -> adjustable focal length and off-axis direction. Telescope can be used as a solar concentrator for power generation when not used for observation.