NexOptic Prototype "Blade" telescopePosted By Thomas Dey |
Hi, Joseph, et al. I sorta researched that concept less than a year ago. The Theory is certainly intriguing, inherently interesting to us optics guys. But (my understanding/take is that) it is an extraordinarily complex way to just---(try to) make a telescope shorter. The principle is closely related to (nearly the same as) other synthetic-phased-aperture radio applications. e.g. the Radio Astronomy VLA. But, at Optical Wavelengths, telescopes are already very small... so all that's left is making it shorter, which is nice, but seems not worth the effort, expense, and complexity. Other detractors are that phasing requirements tend to yield VERY narrow band, narrow field. And it had to be powered and sort/digest all the photons coming in. A "regular" telescope just does that automatically thru the magic of traditional image-forming to transducer (retina or CCD). Even a Fly's Eye does not phase-sort info... Anyway, this flat-scope seems like a cute idea looking for investors or government $$$. Put this in the category of Laser Energetics... theoretically sound / near impossible to economically develop/actualize. Wet dream --- but dreamin' can be nice. I DO hope they succeed! Tom Dey
