Re:SpaceX will now let you book a rocket launch online start...
by AstralStorm on Friday February 07, 2020 @07:46AM
(#22265427)
The difference is size, the simple grinding process does not keep accuracy for big mirrors and lenses.
Re:SpaceX will now let you book a rocket launch online start...
by kragen on Friday February 07, 2020 @10:47AM
(#22267069)
The accuracy isn't in the process of grinding; it's in the process of measurement. All the grinding process needs to do is to remove only a small amount of material, which is itself a nontrivial problem; a single large grain of grit can ruin weeks or months of work, so amateur astronomers may get very angry at you for things that seem unreasonably minor, like opening a door without washing your hands. But that's not a problem that scales superlinearly with mirror size.
Really large mirrors are segmented anyway.
The century-old techniques are a little better now that you can use a laser instead of a candle, and there are improved techniques you can use, but amateur telescope fabrication techniques are totally capable of hitting λ/8 precision.