The Aragoscope is a proposed telescope design utilizing a large circular disk to diffract light, eliminating the need for traditional mirrors or lenses. Named after French scientist Francois Arago, this concept requires a disk approximately half a mile in diameter, positioned in geostationary orbit, to effectively focus light from distant celestial objects. While the principle is sound, the practical implementation necessitates significant scale, making it currently unfeasible for home construction or small-scale projects.
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kolleamm said:Why isn't anyone using this?
so you are not going to build a working one at homeDaveThe Aragoscope is named after French scientist Francois Arago who first noticed how a disk diffracted light waves. The principle is based on using a large disk as a diffraction lens, which bends light from distant objects around the edge of the disk and focuses it like a conventional refraction lens. The phenomenon isn't very pronounced on the small scale, but if the telescope is extremely large, it not only becomes practical, but also extremely powerful.
When deployed the Aragoscope will consist of an opaque disk a half mile in diameter parked in geostationary orbit behind which is an orbiting telescope keeping station some tens to hundreds of miles behind that collects the light at the focal point and rectifies it into a high-resolution image.