Astrophysics (Index)About

monolithic mirror

(telescope mirror made of one piece of material)

A monolithic mirror is a mirror created from a single piece of glass, i.e., typical for small reflector telescopes and the alternative to a segmented mirror for modern large research telescopes. Monolithic mirrors were universal until the latter 20th century, when practical, large segmented mirrors were developed for use in new, larger telescopes. The latter can be made larger, the largest current monolithic mirror being a little more than 8 meters, and monolithic mirrors remain common for telescopes up to that size. Telescopes with sizable monolithic mirrors:

Example telescopes with segmented mirrors:


(telescopes,mirror,configuration)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segmented_mirror
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_optical_reflecting_telescopes
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20090034330/downloads/20090034330.pdf

Referenced by pages:
Hale Telescope
Large Altazimuth Telescope (BTA-6)
MMT
reflector telescope
segmented mirror
Subaru Telescope
William Herschel Telescope (WHT)

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