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.
Yes, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have successfully built and tested an Aragoscope in 2018. It was able to achieve high-resolution images of distant objects using only a small telescope and a spinning disc.
An Aragoscope works by using a spinning disc to cancel out the blurring effects of Earth's atmosphere. The disc is placed in front of a telescope, and as it spins, it creates a series of small apertures that allow light to pass through. This results in a clear and focused image of the object being observed.
An Aragoscope has the potential to greatly improve our ability to study and image distant objects in space. It could be used for exoplanet detection, studying the surfaces of planets and moons in our solar system, and even observing distant galaxies and black holes.
One of the main challenges of building an Aragoscope is the precision required for the spinning disc. It needs to be perfectly balanced and rotated at a constant speed to achieve the desired results. Additionally, the technology is still in its early stages and requires further testing and development before it can be used for space missions.
No, Aragoscopes are not meant to replace traditional telescopes. They are designed to work in conjunction with telescopes to enhance their imaging capabilities. Aragoscopes are also limited in their ability to observe faint objects, so traditional telescopes will still be necessary for certain types of observations.