First images from Lockheed's experimental, telescope-shrinking SPIDER

New Atlas ^ | 8/3/17 | David Szondy

[LibWhacker]

New telescope promises to reduce the size and weight of telescopes, yet retain the resolution.

Shrinking the Telescope: The Future of Optical Technology (4min YouTube video)

[Paladin2]

Good concept, but looks like it needs some development enhancement.

[shibumi]

Just because it’s kewl - Ping!

[Politically Correct]

The first iteration of new technology is never as good as current mature technology.

[SauronOfMordor]

Very nice

[fso301]

Seems like they could reduce the bulk even more by using a curved sensor array rather than the flat disc they are presently using.

[Covenantor]

Ah...the ROY G. BIV leads...almost

[ClearCase_guy]

Phones get bigger.
Telescopes get smaller.

Hello, 21st century.

[Steely Tom]

This is very, very big. Like the transistor, or the laser.

[imardmd1]

(Typical disparaging comment:)

"But are the images in color?"

(Reminds me of the first reports of the merits of liquid crystals back in the day of commonplace Nixie tubes for digital numeric displays on electronic instruments. Now, we have high-def LCD TVs lit by LED arrays. Whew!)

[imardmd1]

>> Phones Microscopes get bigger. <<
>> Telescopes get smaller. <<

(A little more wryness in the comparison)

[Moltke]

I’d call it a high resolution digital camera, not a telescope.

[Lx]

Thank God for LCDs.
My Nixie tube TV works great for numbers but its resolution and flicker leave a lot to be desired.

[Steely Tom]

>> Phones Microscopes get bigger. << >> Telescopes get smaller. <<

Very good. Yes. The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at CERN is a microscope that's more than five miles across.

In fact, however, and if I read this announcement right, SPIDER is a way to make telescopes very large indeed, by "virtualizing" their optical aperture. This opens the door to amazing possibilities.

Also frightening possibilities.

[fella]

Paper microscope

[bigbob]

Its an interferometer, built on a micro scale.

[Charles Martel]

Also frightening possibilities.

Note that in the "How SPIDER sees" image from Lockheed upthread, SPIDER is "looking" down at us, rather than out into space.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Good concept, but looks like it needs some development enhancement.

As you may not have noticed in the article, the telescope result image - tho clearly inferior to the target image - has to be respected considering that the test optically simulated the challenge of photographing the target image from 280 miles away. So you don’t expect perfection.

Presumably a larger array of sensors, which is in development, would produce a sharper image at the same distance.

Saving 90% of the mass in a satellite payload is nothing to sneeze at.

[Paradox]

Just wait until Google sends a spider sensor/network into orbit, aimed right back here on earth.

[xp38]