Super Telescope

[Darth Takahashi]

I have a question and a proposal?

According to optical theory if I use two telescopes to image the same object and separate them, well lets say by 5m, then I have effectively created a telescope with the same resolution as a 5m telescope, correct.

So if I image the moon from Holland with my Mewlon M250 and one of you guys does the same thing in the UK with a comparable C11, and we then send the data via the internet to each other, will we have created a superscope with a mirror the size of the baseline between the locations?

Of course, I realise that there are many issues to over come;

1. Matching the focal lengths of the telescopes

2. The local seeing condition at each of the locations

3. Matching the camera's and maximizing their raw resolution

4. Synchronizing time

4. Image processing!

To some extent making avi's and rejecting bad frames as already overcomes a lot of the local seeing conditions. Also we could stick to one frequency, Infrared etc... Using filters from the same manufacturer for consistency etc... The network could be extended to include more telescopes to gather more data from difference viewing location and so different viewing angles.

Times and target could be delivered to the this SuperScope network using the forum. We only need a cental location for uploading large volumes of data. Namely the raw avi files.

I beleive that it would be best to centralise the image processing since I might reject frames that are usuful in the final image. Unless a standard set of parameters could be agreed for rejecting frames?

Let me have your comments, what are the flaws if any with the above?

Neil.

[Merlin66]

Great idea, but unfortunately flawed........

The light beams from each mirror must be "matched" within fractions of a wavelength at the focus to achieve the spatial resolution. The original Multi-Mirror Telescope on Mt Hopkins had 6 main mirrors, each an independent paraboliod; at the focus they had a mult-faceted prism and a series of wave guides to control the path length to the focus... In the end they gave up!!

The Large ESO scopes at La Silla do collect and combine the light... but I think we're talking about mega $$$$$$$

The current trend towards sharing raw images and then using them to combine into a 2hour or 4 hour equivalent exposure, I think is a very good use of amateur resource.

Sorry to disappoint!!!!

[Ben Ritchie]

The Large ESO scopes at La Silla do collect and combine the light... but I think we're talking about mega $$$$$$$

Being pedantic, VLTI is at Paranal, don't think there's a comparable system at La Silla? There are some significant issues as well as $$$, it's working in the infra-red and the light-loss in the optical path is very large (something like 99%), plus it's only good for certain targets. Data reduction is a sod too.

COAST is possibly a better example of how this can work on a cheaper scale, but it's still far out of the reach of amateurs.