Why is this Space Telescope so Tiny?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 พ.ค. 2024
- If you want to take a look through a similar telescope, follow this link:
• Making a monolithic te...
Optical Engineer Rik ter Horst shows us how he makes very small telescopes (at home) which are intended for use in micro-satellites.
Contents:
0:00 Intro
1:06 About telescopes and focal length
3:35 The Cassegrain telescope
4:38 The Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope
5:18 The monolithic telescope concept
6:30 Rik ter Horst Interview
10:25 Riks' polishing setup
13:51 About manufacturing aspherics
16:50 Advantages of solid telescopes
17:49 Dreaming about a VLTT
ORESAT PROJECT CORRECTION. I was notified that the name of the university behind the OreSat project is erroneous: It is the "Portland State University" (www.pdx.edu/), not University of Portland. Sorry about that! Direct link to the Oresat project: www.oresat.org/
Rik published details about the 1993 version of this type of telescope on cloudynights.com in 2013. www.cloudynights.com/topic/40... (archived article)
2:34 The image shows the second telescope of Galileo, not the first telescope of Lipperhey.
The video contains images of external sources. Please visit their websites for more information:
- Star party image was taken from: www.nps.gov/cebe/planyourvisi...
- More amazing astro-photos made by Dick van Tatenhoven can be found at: www.sterrenwachtalmere.nl/don...
- NOVA-Astron website: www.astron.nl/about/organisat...
- Yerkes telescope photo from: www.space.com/26858-yerkes-ob...
- Source of image at 0:41 is www.bxoptic.com/production-wor...
- Image of the Schmidt plate and Cassegrain telescope taken from their respective Wikipedia pages:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmidt...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmidt...
Do you like what I do and want to support it? I'v recently started a patreon page: / huygens_optics
Did I forget a reference? Objections? Please let me know and I will set it straight and add a link. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
At the time of the video, the telescope mirrors were not coated. If you want to take a look through a similar telerscope, please follow this link: th-cam.com/video/2lf6uuU51Z8/w-d-xo.html
Apparently the name of the university behind the OreSat project is erroneous: It is the "Portland State University" (www.pdx.edu/), not University of Portland.
One is a private school, one is a public school.
Also the satellite image was of the University of Portland. Portland state could be seen in satellite images from a few km somewhat southeast.
I can't even polish my car 😅
Imagine launching 100,000 of these, and making a 1000 km telescope array. :) We could see exoplanets directly
I live just south of there in Corvallis, Oregon. Home of Oregon State University.
Someone said "We don't have real scientists these days. Newton would grind his own lenses!", and this guy took it very personally.
In fairness, Newton ground his own optics because it was impossible to buy them; he was a top professor and had the money to spend if there had been products for sale. His first "Newtonian" reflecting telescope had an aperture of only 30 mm or so, too, and a focal length of about 150 mm -- the original instrument still exists, and it looks like a scale model of a reflecting telescope. Newton's first telescope had a spherical mirror surface, too, because the tools and techniques for parabolizing a reflecting surface wouldn't exist for another 200 years (and at the size and focal ratio he had, it virtually didn't matter anyway).
Many scientists wind up creating their own equipment, though they may use prefabricated components because those now exist.
@@SilntObsvr thanks for the info, quite interesting
th-cam.com/video/R0zW8bqZOcU/w-d-xo.html scientist of war as a product of evolution and the reality of the time - small pockets of humanity still, but aligned by principles..
MASTER (of the curve)
@@SilntObsvr He had plenty of money until his investment in that spicy trading company.
I'm so proud to be his son! I've recently also become interested in optics, and because of him I know some basics, and I can now design Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes in Zemax and OSLO. It is awesome to see the things visible through a telescope, and even more awesome knowing that my father made it in a little room.
Hé Tom, you're just 13 years young and already so talented! I'm proud that you're my son!
Nice. Poor choice of graphics, imo. But otherwise a good video, don't you think?
@@astrorikThe apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. 😊
If you've ever handled glass, you are more likely to chip and scratch rather than polish them. This guy is a scientist and an artist!
I suggest buying better quality glass from somewhere like Corning. using proper technique good quality glass should be pretty simple to work with
it's all in the pasta!
What if you work under water? I'm serious. Search youtube for: cutting glass under water
I found this fascinating.The Dutch optical tradition continues 5 centuries on. I'm forwarding this to my cousin who worked on the 10 meter McDonald observatory in Texas as well as the Vera c. Rubin LSST. This is the other end of the scale he can still appreciate.
So interesting! I really appreciate your videos -- some of my favorites on TH-cam.
Same for you :D
Hey fancy seeing you here
What's your other favourites?
I say, that this channel has only 43k subscribers is just criminal.
Thanks for leading us the way here!
>Tells viewers ahead of interview that subtitles are available
>Proceeds to hold interview in very good English
And here I was thinking that I might learn a Dutch word or two. Anyways... That was an absolutely fascinating optical design. I admire anyone with the ability to have the kind of patience required to make these.
some people learn how to read english in school but dont have anyone to speak to or dont understand english outside of their own accent like in japan/korea (thats been going away with the internets global reach, but its still a large quantity of people im sure). Also if someone doesnt want to listen to the video they can just watch.
@@nom6758 That's sorta what happened to me. I'm dutch and learned english by consuming thousands of hours of youtube content since I was 10. I'm pretty sure I would be considered fluent at english, even though I probably suck at pronounciation since I've never had to speak a word of english in my life (well, outside of school of course)
The funny thing is, I cringe a little when I hear dutch people speaking english, even though I'd probably be about the same
@@rysea9855 You don't have to cringe :) the accent I find is cute. I learned english from watching cartoons when I was little and have zero accent. Whenever I've spoken to americans, they don't notice I'm not american until I talk to one of my friends on the phone in very sloppy Puerto Rican slang. Then they're like... wait a minute... you're not from the states?! I used to think anyone else who had an accent in my country when speaking english was dumb (when I was little) but then I grew to understand that not everyone has the same capability and then I grew endeared to all the different kinds of accents of spoken English, including the "terrible" one from my island lol. I love how the British accent sounds and the African accents as well.
The Dutch live in a country where the weather is 90% intolerable; so they stay indoors a lot, and study their asses off. If you have a problem; ask a Dutchman for assistance, he/she will formulate a perfect solution every time.
@@goatsinker347 what if the solution lies outside in the elements? :)
I love that this and many other ultra accurate things are made by hand. The original gauge blocks were also made by hand. I tried making a 4 inch stainless steel surface plate for gauge block comparison and I got it to 1 millionth flatness over 4 inches and learned a lot in the process.
I tried to scrape a machine surface to go flat, taking me a lot of time and patience. I need to have a granite flat surface for reference, so this master guy uses the larger piece as the reference
LOL that ending was great. What a true craftsman that Rik ter Horst is. This takes a mind blowing amount of precision... and he's just doing it by hand in his house very peacefully like it's nothing.... truly remarkable. I would say he is a genius.
I'd like to see a side-by-side comparison of images taken by a traditional very small cassegrain telescope versus this all-in-one new tiny telescope idea.
I second that
Me too!
That aperture it has is incredibly tiny though, so only something like high energy light photography can be done. The concept is however really interesting.
yes me too
Definitely
Hey! That presentation by Mr. Fullersheit is for internal use only!
Can't wait to see what comes next :)
Someone leaked it!
Hi spirit
Love it!
Probably someone posted it on the reps Discord
That's /Doctor/ Fullersheit to you!!
I accidentally clicked in this video, was just about to go to another video then I realised this is actually interesting, guess I will keep watching... Never thought it would be something I would want to know about, yet it was so fascinating and I'm glad I did watch on.. Great work and thank you for taking the time to make this content.
VLTT. Such an insider engineer joke, but man, I laughed at that one.
I hope it supports laser tomography for adaptive optics.
Definitely is perfectly in line with how all these damn telescopes get named. =)
I read this comment early and was kind of disappointed in myself for not getting this insider engineering joke. So, I shouldn't have to explain how hard I laughed when I got to the end of the video. Very Large Tiny Telescope, cute little thing isn't it? Haha
I reckon you should make it!
then i must be a secret engineer :p yes!
That was a trippy dream Jeroen, haha! Very interesting and nice to learn about the tiny telescope, and the interview with Rik was great too. I did expect a more uncomfortable ambiance based on your intro.
I wonder what his wife thinks of his dreams :)
I recall in the 70s/80s that Vivitar marketed a range of 'solid' catadioptric lenses similar in concept but much larger (600mm f/8 and 800mm f/11 for 35mm film, my main recollection of holding one was how heavy it was despite its small size), however I don't believe they were monolithic despite the 'solid' branding (they still had multiple elements/groups, just generally thicker lenses and smaller air gaps).
Making something so tiny yet precise like this really takes a master, it might only take him a few weeks or months to finish one now but that's with decades of prior experience in making them.
While I wouldn't expect to see one in an art gallery the lenses he is making are absolutely works of art in their own right, and I can't wait to one day see an image captured by one (I'm sure to appreciate it that much more knowing slightly more of the background behind it).
I picked up one of those Vivitar lenses, the 800 mm f11 many years ago. The lens itself is only about 4 1/2 inches long! It's very sharp considering it's relatively small size. The lens is stamped "made in U.S.A." and was manufactured by Perkin-Elmer. That company made a lot of optics for the US space program. The smallest mirror optics I've ever seen are a few lenses designed as microscope objectives by the Russian company Lomo. I found this video fascinating. I can imagine how much fun it would be to play with such a tiny telescope that this gentleman is constructing.
Perkins Elmer made the optics for the Hubble telescope and everyone remembers what a royal muck up that was.
Maybe this beyond the scope of a simple reply, but I’m puzzled as to how a “solid state” lens can be used to capture images at different distances. You can’t “focus” the lens afterward so is the lens built with a particular distance in mind (for example the University wants to capture their campus from space so I assume their lens will be engineered for that exact distance so the surface of the earth is in focus)? Or does the sensor move in order to be able to refocus on other things? I guess I’m realizing I don’t know how phone cameras focus without moving parts. Also I know that the aperture determines the speed of the lens, but are there inherent losses due to the fact that the light has to travel through a solid medium vs normal lenses where the light passes through mostly air?
@@davidswanson5669 The same here. I wish to know more about this too. I have the same question, what about the body in the middle of the entire lens, do it produce some deficiency?. Sorry for my english.
@@davidswanson5669 It would be focused to infinity. Anything past a few dozen feet should be in focus.
I’m sure this is obvious to those out watch this channel a lot but seeing the reflection in the center not move while he’s polishing it is very interesting. I know that’s the whole function of what it’s making but seeing it in such a rough form really puts it in perspective.
So the OreSat got launched yesterday and reached orbit. It's supposed to be a successful deploy as well.
So I am really excited to see the first light.
The reflective coating topic was recently explored by AlphaPheonix, so I hope you can learn from their mistakes.
Perhaps we can get reflector binoculars soon that perform really well.
How would it be focused?
@@fredk.2001it’s already been focused I think. They already knew what orbit it’s in and it seems like it was hard mounted, so I think it doesn’t need it.
Imagine the possibilities. You could even make a square meter array.
Or even a square kilomillimeter array!
@@photonymous or a square decadecimeter array!
I thought exactly the same thing.
@@photonymous kilomilimeter* noice
Yes, imagine if you got robots churning these things out (maybe at a larger scale, even) and just covered some arbitrarily large surface with them.
That was the best explantation of focal length I have ever seen. Human to eagle retina comparison really brought it home for me.
I've done optics courses at University, looked at telescopes for many years and yet never really *got* it. In 30 seconds this has made clear years of confusion.
@Fred Garvin I never had an intuitive understanding of it. I could do the maths pass the tests but didn't understand it.
And the human’s prey was a clever choice.
This makes me hope that in the future humans will be able to either Genemod or augment ourself with eyes like an eagle.
Might take a little getting used to tho...
@@Shinzon23 There's got to be a drawback somewhere in the comparison. It's unlikely that human vision was not subject to a great deal of selective pressure. This means there are reasons unknown to me why our fovea is less densely packed.
Note that early refracting telescopes were long to minimize chromatic aberration, especially before the invention of doublet and triplet objectives, rather than to achieve high magnification. Also note that high magnification does not increase resolution, as implied in this video. Resolution depends solely on the aperture. For an ideal, circular aperture of diameter D, the approximate angular resolution θ = 1.22 λ/D, where λ is the wavelength of light, so bigger D is better. For visible wavelengths λ = 0.55 µm approximately; thus, at the focal plane, the smallest image that can be resolved is about 4f/3 µm, where f is the focal ratio of the objective. Using smaller pixels in a camera, or more megapixels, will not yield a higher resolution once the Nyquist-Shannon sampling limit (2f/3 µm) is satisfied.
This video is absolutely awesome!!!
You explain extremely well, have a lovely pace, have very interesting content and obviously rock solid knowledge!
A huuuuuge thanks to you and everyone participating in your channel!
With an echelon filter front end these would make fantastic solar telescopes. They'd be very short in length and the glass could also be used as a blocking filter. A mini H-alpha scope that fits as a lens on a DSLR!!!
I was thinking the exact same thing! Maybe even with a solar tracker for long exposures…
Fits on the end of a DSLR, though it looks like the image circle is probably for ~10x crop factor sensor.
Or a pair of solar binoculars! Sweet!
@@annemarietobias Trippy, a real stargazers toy.
Echelon or etalon?
Sorry for the double post: I thought your interview was great. When you said there were English subtitles I was expecting you guys to speak in a different language, however there wasn't a single word that wasn't very clear and understandable.
Also its amazing that someone is able to do this type of work at home. Even though I know both of you have high levels of experience, it's really awesome to know that you don't need extremely expensive equipment to achieve such small tolerances.
Yeah, I turned on closed captioning in expectation that they would be speaking Dutch or maybe Frisian, but then they proceeded to speak perfect English - just like I should have expected from the Dutch.
I do wonder what ASML might be able to do with that kind of concept but working the other direction…..
Reminds me of a podcast I listened to once. There are more English speakers from "non-English speaking countries" than there are from "English speaking countries." Whatever can be considered the "correct" English accent is beyond me. Typically, the only people who have a hard time understanding accents are the people who have been exposed to only a small handful of them. In my opinion, that's a group that doesn't necessarily need to have their hands held.
Well, I also added the remark because of the variation in acoustics, which might hinder people with a hearing impairment.
@@jimbrookhyser People with a different way of speaking are feared and hated.
@@esecallum I see your point. But speaking for myself, I neither fear nor hate anyone in this comments section.
The fact that something so complex as those tiny telescopes can be made with such simple tools ist just mind-boggling to me.
This video is very well done!! It’s so informative and polished, the explanation is very simple and basic, straight to the point. And the interview was pretty good, even though it was your first time doing and interview, it was really nice. Good job!! Both of you.
Can't wait to see the VLTT :-)
Indeed it would be excellent to explain how those multi-telescope telescopes works. I've never been able to understand it so far.
@@Nosseb2 As far as I know you place the telescopes on certain spots of where there should be the bigger virtual telescope's mirror / radio dish
Then by using computer software to combine the recorded images it's possible to get a much higher resolution than the telescopes would have had on their own, you basically create a "virtual" enormous telescope, but where only a few spots of the virtual mirror actually reflect and contribute to the image
The Mini-VLTT is a good idea for the Miniatur Wunderland - smells like minification-cooperation. The best fun would be a working Mini-VLTT with all the needed hard- and software.
Honestly, a series of videos of him trying to do just that, especially if using already-existing tools, could take this channel from 42.7 thousands subscribers to millions or tens of millions of subscribers in a mere 1-3 years. Believe me, I've seen similar things happen on other channels, with interesting projects making entire channels go viral.
@@SapioiT Yep, could be very educating and entertaining - and the Miniatur Wunderland gets its stairway to heaven...
But what would it look at? It might be fun and profitable if it could be operated/aimed by patrons of Miniatur Wunderland for a fee.
Very Small Very Large hee hee
Excellent videos.
I love the clarity you give in your explainations.
Excited for the next one.
Fascinating! Both the explanations about the mechanisms of telescopes, and the interview itself, were very clear and interesting. It's somehow reassuring that such a precision instrument can still be made by hand by an artisan. Would be great to see some example images!
In the 70's I bought (from Edmond Scientific, I think) a 6" diameter glass blank and kit to grind my own parabolic mirror (kitchen table top knife-edge test). I didn't build a treadle spinner, so it was forward-backward strokes, rotate, repeat. Glad to see that there are people (ter Horst is a hero for his invention) still doing work by hand like this, and at that level!
I made mechanical parts for one of the first satellites. I am very impressed with this technology, because the mechanics were extremely challenging to make and it took me countless hours to get a single miniature piece working as designed.
As always, an excellent video! Your ability of making complex concepts accessible is very good. Thank you.
You have my new favorite channel on TH-cam. I've always loved optics and lens design, so to see videos like yours is really great!
Very cool and timely. I just bought myself a washing machine motor and have taken delivery of several schott glass blanks from united lens. Wish me luck 😀
I wish you luck! And keep my fingers crossed :-)
@@pietpaaltjes7419 Thanks! Always wanted to take up ATM and now's good as any.
Good luck! :-)
@@maxmustermann5353 👍
Are you making videos? If so I'll subscribe.
Hello Mr. Huygens, it would have also been interesting to see one of these tiny telescope "in action" - for example with moon in the night sky, or so.
Everyone needs something to look forward to!
@@HuygensOptics touché, Dr. Fullersheit.
Huygens Optics You got me!
@@HuygensOptics Translation: "I'm still grinding." :D
@@HuygensOptics haha
Really awesome video. It's nie to see the fantastic engineers that Philips produced and what they can still come up with. Would be nice to maybe continue this interview series :D
What an artist and craftsman this fellow is. Amazing.
This is absolutely amazing! SCIENCE!!!!! 🔬🔭 Optics and the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum is fascinating! Great work here!
Why are you everywhere??? Farming likes??
@@telescopesfs-officialchann3897 dude he is Jesus Christ, he's God....he's everywhere
@@aravindak7385 not in our mosque
@@ributasmara5841 no, he is.....that same Jesus that Christians worship is in the mosques being worshipped as Allah, and the same Allah is being worshipped in temples as Krishna and Shiva
@@aravindak7385 Jesus is not god. Jesus is god's son.
Some days YT seems like the best thing on Earth.
but unfortunately there are very few such days...
I agree. It’s a modern marvel in some regards.
Gracious and technical at the same time. Thank you
This is very cool! I have dreamed of such a telescope for a long time, but I did not think that someone was making its and that it had any practical application. Thanks.
Amazing ingenuity from Rik ter Horst! Thank you to Rik for his time and yourself for bringing us this fascinating interview. Always inspiring to see optical engineering pushed ahead.
it’s good to see the Dutch are still masters in optics.
@John Johnson I think you’ll find the Dutch (and I’m English by the way, so I’m not being patriotic) were crafting precision optical instruments, especially microscopes, hundreds of years before your examples.
@John Johnson I’m not talking about Dutch migrants to America, or who made the most money. I’m simply stating a fact that the original European Dutch were master optical craftsmen and still are, clearly. Clearly, you get it? Lol. And on a side note, I lived in a place called Zundert in The Netherlands for some years. I went to an opticians there for new glasses. He almost immediately told me my prescription as wrong ( it had originally been done in England) and had been for years. The new glasses he made me were like having new eyesight. Trust me, they can work lenses.
Wow! Besides the fascinating invention, thats amazing that mr. Horst makes those glasses/mirrors for a space telescope just inside his house! Thanks for sharing!
This is truly fascinating! It's a beautiful example of how understanding how concepts function has allowed us to not only refine previous designs, but also to design smaller and (usually) make more affordable. The handcrafted part pretty well makes this piece functional art. I would of loved using one of these as a teaching tool, and just to have for giggles too!
It would be fun to try out a super powerful but tiny set of binoculars made from a pair of these
The aperture is awful on these, unfortunately. So they are difficult to use photographically, and completely useless for telescopes and binoculars where you use your eyes to see directly through the glass.
(Fast forward 5 years) iPhone 23, now with telescope!
@Ahmed Shah Ultra Max Mini
I don't know how the algorithm blessed me with this, but this was really cool and informative! It reminds me of when i was a kid and turning on discovery channel in the middle of the night and getting a cool mini documentary on some obscure (to me) STEM topic. Definitely looking forward to seeing more from you!
More about this! Please, a dedicated further video going deeper into the materials, procedures and tips to make one of these at home. Awesome video, as the rest of your channel.
Wow! I hope we get to see more interviews conducted with varying experts in their field. This "at home science" is right up my alley.
I also appreciated the captions as someone slightly hard of hearing. Can't wait for the next one!
This is a fantastic video. Rik is a really nice guy, great to see this collaboration!
Both very informative and amusing, thank you!
Would love to see an hour long video of him just polishing like that. So relaxing.
Dr. Fullerscheit has some innovative ideas.
Hey, what an ending, in style of The Periodic Table of Videos. It was just a cherry on the cake for another awesome video here. It is all highly appreciated.
Thank you so much for making these amazing videos, the physics and craftsmanship are fascinating !
This is so wonderful, great piece of high accuracy work. I am overwhelmed by the accuracy and painstaking effort.
This is so cool. As a kid I was visiting the amateur astronomy club in my home town and since then I want to make my own lenses and mirrors for a telescope.
I never got around to making one but I am still amazed how easy this looks.
But I also know that it takes years and years of experience before one could even try something like this.
The monolithic design is a freaking genius! Never thought about it that way.
Awesome video BTW. You got yourself a nee sub here 😎
I hope you've made progress on your own! Great videos man, glad i came across your channel. I'm hooked
so deep knowledge combined with humbleness and sporadic yet time consuming humour, is a true pleasure to watch. thank you for sharing, whatever you have to share, each time.
Always makes my day to learn something new from Huygens Optics. Thank you as always for the wonderful uploads!
I can see these solid state telescopes dramatically shrunk down and manufactured as a layer on optronic silicon chips. You could build an interferometer array on a single micro chip. This is ideal technology for Breakthrough Starshot.
It would never happen. We are still building bigger observatories as we speak in Hawaii.
@@AKFF320
@@AKFF320 yes but they have completely different purposes...
It's like saying binoculars are the same as that massive telescope in Hawaii. The point is totally different.
Great content, great production value and also a very good (English) interview! Thanks
Excellent content! I'd love to see more interesting interviews and discussion about optics like this!
Extraordinary! Incidentally the reference weight model of S.I. one kilogram sphere was also polished by hand - go humans!
Thank you for bringing us this video. Looking forward to your VLTT reveal :)
"By hand" is relative here. Machines ground it, but humans repeatedly set up the machines and did the measuring on the sphere. There is no automatic workflow for this kind of job, but saying it was ground by hand is like saying I drilled that hole into the wall by hand, because I was the one setting up the laser and then holding the power drill.
WHY is there even a thumbs down? Based purely on scientific interest ALONE, why, WHY a thumbs down!?
Because of human feelings and behavior, when man get jelouse then they begin to hate and act that way.
holy moly this could be so cool for cameras. reminds me of that one "probe" lens from a few years ago... you could get into tight spaces but still have a bright, narrow image.
that end ! XD anxious waiting for the next episode !
Hey! I have couple questions: 1 - it would be nice to see picture quality, too bad we don’t have examples 2 - can you use such a telescope by like a hand telescope? 3 - so this telescope magnification exceeds practical magnification limit: diameter(mm)*2, so a telescope with a diameter of 50mm has a practical maximum magnification of 100 times
Loved the cartoons - Elsa and Anna, eagles looking at rabbit while ladies looking at handbag etc. Great humour!
I understood the point but wasn't terribly happy with the stereotyping... How about a lady looking longingly at a set of high quality, beautifully made and high accuracy micrometer gauges, or a double bass of Stradivarius quality, or the Scottish Highlands, or -- a Labrador!? Personally, I'm not particularly interested in handbags... (Does it show?!)
I’m also not thrilled by the stereotyping in that scene… Perhaps the eagle daydreams of being an astronaut, or a football player, or a tadpole, or a plumber. These kinds of careless and insensitive stereotypes only serve to perpetuate the mainstreaming of anti-eagleism, and we as enlightened beings should strive to do better.
(Seriously though, excellent humor in this scene. It’s not that it’s funny because of the stereotype, it’s funny because the joke ‘IS’ the stereotype. I hope that makes sense.)
I worked for a company in the past that made CNC equipment for contact lens and lens replacement production This is truly cool stuff. I met my wife in Hungary while servicing this equipment. She worked in optical QC. Very interesting video.
Fantastic glimpse into the home lens grinding.
This was fantastic. Thanks for bringing Rik's masterful work to our attention, and I really hope you do make your own attempt at replicating his work. I'm sure I'm not the only one that would like to come along for the ride.
PS. I'm so pleased to see that it's not just me with those strange dreams. It's late and I actually laughed out loud.
I never thought a person could build something within the tolerance of a few microns by hand that's crazy
Precision Is an ancient art, people used to achieve similar precision by hand grinding and polishing simply by checking the fitment periodically to ensure the desired fit.
Microns? no, nanometers!
Great performance 🤓 I worked in fine optics for several years, during which time I polished all kinds of spheres. However, I made Aspheren exclusively with CNC machines.... Hats off
WOW! Fantastic craftsmanship, total perfection. Unbelievable creativity and patience
Damn it, I thought I had kicked this ATMing hobby, however this is Awesome and I have everything except the optical parameters to try making my own. (well, I can't do AR coatings yet, but for a one off I can probably live with just the reflective coatings which I can do). Time to go find that ancient copy of Zemax and start crunching designs! Thank you for sharing this amazing idea!!
New subscriber here. This is the weirdest channel ... and I love it. This video had it all -- beautiful science, master craftsmanship, and hilarious comedy. Dr. Fullersheit had me belly laughing. The VLTT was a masterstroke, who even _thinks_ of putting a scale replica of the VLT in a gnome garden? 😂 Congrats to Rik also, what a labour of love ... a Cassegrain telescope from a single glass blank is a mind-blowing concept. Would love to read more about the specs if they are available.
Thanks for posting this!
Incredible that this can be done by hand. I am thoroughly impressed.
Too cool for school
I think you should trademark VLTT before someone else does
Hey! its wonderful Anton :D!
Wow so much production value! Love the videos, keep it up :) BTW, why does the light reflect on the inside of the glass? is it coated with a reflective layer, or is it like FTIR?
It can’t be internal reflection at these close to 90 degree angles of incidence. I guess if he doesn’t do vacuum coating, he just chemically silvers them and then protects the silver layer with paint? Maybe put a vacuum deposition coils on the satellite itself and do it once in orbit? :) I so want one of these to myself…
Interesting video, super exciting project. thank you for sharing!
Thank you for this fascinating video, well presented !
Glass optics by hand are still one of the things that hold value.
Even when you can mass produce every other component.
Plastic and epoxy versions will likely work for standard use, but the image quality an clarity goes to efforts like this grind and polish in glass.
The work is appreciated.
_Side question; Has these lens' been sputtered for the mirror coats? I'd think that would give the best reflection._
He could greatly lighten the design by sandwiching acrylic plastic between glass endplates. This has the further advantage of making it easier to machine the baffle, which could then be filled with opaque material and completely enclosed when the endplate is bonded on.
Very interesting! Hoping that the VLTT passes from dream to reality 😃
The practical & theoretical knowledge that you possess is invaluable, it is the type of things that are not in the books. I have seen several of your videos and they are amazing. Thank you for taking a large part of your precious time to share these gems of knowledge.
Sorry, but 'practical theoretical knowledge' doesn't exist. Either it's theoretical or its applied theoretical knowledge aka. practical knowledge.
The theoretical part is physics. The practical knowledge is engineering around the real world limitations to come close to the theoretical limits.
@@dalrok Don't be sorry; on the contrary, I am very grateful for the explanation.
Amazing! Breakthrough in optics is essential for next astronomy revolution 👍
Brilliant! I had no idea this sort of optical package could be constructed. It makes me wonder if it would also be feasible to mass produce them in some other way.
Well, I expect it to happen any day now...
Mass produced photo lenses often have aspherical surfaces, so it would probably be possible. But then there's the matter of finding an application for them that warrants mass production.
@@HuygensOptics The first thing that popped in my head was reflectors for med power led's. Would this work with pmma?
I love how he just nonchalantly wipes it off using his shirt. So awesome, I love every bit of this. :-)
I nearly passed out at that. My optical experience is mainly with high power lasers and you never touch an optical surface with anything other than the purest white cloth; otherwise the optic melts and all hell breaks loose.
It's a towel in his lap :)
He doesn´t, it was a towel hanging behind him, whose end he layed on his leg. ...
Thank God for the "You're Wrong!" posse of youtube or I'd never know that it wasn't his shirt but instead a very much NOT optical wiping cloth.
I guess you have to have worked with VERY expensive optics to appreciate the spirit of my OP.
@@soaringvulture That's got to be pretty interesting. Sorry I caught up to this so late but if you're still around, can I ask how much power you're working with? Note my profile image... I was very much into laser DIY once upon a time and still dabble in it as need arises. 🙂
Beautiful video. Thank you so much. It was very informative.
i had this idea a while back when i first heard of cube sats this year. having a big bunch of them fitted with tiny telescopes all on the sabe orbital plane such that it is perpendicular to the galactic plane, then connect them all into an interferometer that works the same way as the EHT. i heard somewhere that that should give you enough resolution to image exo-planets.
great video, now i know what i should use as a telescope
Very interesting! I wonder: could this design advantageous be used for making compact binoculars? It would make the binocular even more compact with same aperture.
Why complicate an elegant design? Keep it as a monocular. All you really need is to build a body to house and protect it.
Imagine making hundreds of cubesats with these so that every astronomer, Tom, Dick, and Harry could have scope time whenever they wanted it.
You could send them all over the solar system along with a network of relays, so we could get close-ups of practically anything nearby.
How about sticking one on every starlink satellite?
@@maschwab63 The starlinks communicate with lasers - wonder what optics they do have...
@@DLWELD I'm thinking they are taking lens from LEDs and CD/DVD/BLUE-RAY-RW drives and scaling larger.
I don't know quite how I got here but I can't wait to see your finished VLTT. Subbed.
The ending was wonderful... Love it
So happy to have stumbled across this TH-cam channel! I love the short vignette at the end of this video. Halfway through the video itself I was thinking how cool it would be to launch several cubesats based on the opensat platform Oregon State used as a space-based interferometry platform.
This channel and AstroBiscuit are my newfound hidden gems!
The algorithm 🖖🖖
It'd be nice if this instrument could be available to the general public. Part of the reason for lack of interest in studying the Universe is that most people don't have easy access to telescopes like these.
I mean, you can get a catadioptric lens for 100usd ready to mount to an entry level DSLR camera. That's a basic telescope for astrophotography that anyone can get
take your time man, take as long as you need, i really want to see how these end up
It's cool to see this technology returning. I own an 800mm f11 Vivitar Series 1 camera lens that's built around a similar concept.