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Tiny Nano Telescope — Parallax Forums

Tiny Nano Telescope

HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
edited 2012-02-10 07:41 in General Discussion
I'm experimenting with a tiny Nano Telescope.
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.com/2012/02/nana-telescope.html

It uses a vertical design, objective lens and ocular with
two spaced platforms, with varied size pinholes,
and water drops.

If the pinhole becomes too small, the lens shape from the water
tension is lost.

Experimentally, substances, such as oil were introduced to study
the effect on the shape of the lens.

To negate evaporation, glycerin drops can sub for water.

I began experimenting with resin and very small pinhole
aperture stops of various materials.

Another idea is the stretching and compressing of materials
to reshape a molecular lens, thus modifying its focal length
and magnification when the lens composition is slow viscous.

Clear spherical beads work as tiny lenses and very small spheres
are readily made and cured in low micro gravity as shown by NASA.

It's possible to fabricate microscopes and magnifiers from water drops
and cameras have pin hole lenses.

Potential uses: tiny telescopes in the human body, a fly eye
with binocular vision, special multi-fiber optics apps, and satellite
devices.

Comments

  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2012-02-09 07:06
    If you want to tinker with tiny lenses, you might want to Google electrowetting lens and check out those articles.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2012-02-09 08:21
    Some years ago someone was working on spectacles for third-world countries that used flexible water-filled lenses. Water could be pumped into them for a wide range of adjustment.
  • skylightskylight Posts: 1,915
    edited 2012-02-09 12:04
    I remember those specs Leon, did you see the "contact" lenses that Philip Schofield tested on the "Good Morning" programme a little while back, instead of wearing the contact lenses during the day you put them on during the nights sleep and they compress the lens of your eyeball and so adjust the focus, he said they worked extremely well and he could see perfectly(may have been a plug I don't know) but apparently the indent in the eye lasts for the whole day and you just repeat the process at night time.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2012-02-09 12:21
    No, I didn't see those contact lenses.

    I've always been short-sighted but I've never worn contact lenses. A friend of mine severely damaged his sight with them.
  • skylightskylight Posts: 1,915
    edited 2012-02-09 12:25
    What happened, have heard some stories of welders having accidents whilst wearing contacts but not sure if they are true or not
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2012-02-09 23:33
    Perhaps the human eye has electrowetting characteristics or it could be introduced to adjust eye focus without glasses. ElectricAye, those are some great sources for this project.
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2012-02-10 00:52
    Pinhole imaging is an interesting topic.
    In fact, a lot of people experience it every day, they just don't realise it.
    (Sometimes, when you're out in the rain and blink your eyes you see microscopic particles for just an instant. Then a drop was caught in just the perfect position in your eyelashes)

    with a bit of practice, it's possible to use a piece of aluminium foil with a pinprick as an enlarger, but it takes practice and good light.
    and that's the problem with pinhole imaging, you need lots of light.
    My Holga 120W pinhole camera has a F135 rated pinhole, and with my regular 100 film, it takes 7 - 9 seconds to properly expose a single image in bright daylight.
    Get a GOOD F200 pinhole, and well...
    In theory, the most perfect lens you could make would be a 1 atom wide hole in a 1 atom thick film, but then you're already getting problems with quantuum physics.
    (And also the fact that photons tends to act weirdly whenever they feel like it)
    Yes, the thickness of the film the hole is made in matters. You want a hole, not a tunnell.
    Todays pinhole cameras use thin aluminium foil or mylar film, not paper or cardboard as the earlier types.
    (Incidentally, the first disposable cameras were pinhole designs. A glass platen, with paper bellows stuck to it, and a taped over pinhole at the front. Take a picture, put the tape back over the pinhole, mail the whole thing to the processing lab, wait... wait... get a picture in the mail)
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2012-02-10 01:24
    Van Leeuwenhoek's microscopes used tiny glass spheres: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonie_van_Leeuwenhoek
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2012-02-10 01:39
    Gadgetman wrote: »
    In theory, the most perfect lens you could make would be a 1 atom wide hole in a 1 atom thick film, but then you're already getting problems with quantuum physics.

    This doesn't seem right to me. If by "lens", you mean pinhole, then if the hole is too small, you'll get problems with diffraction. The optimal hole size is dependent on the wavelength of light you wish to capture and the distance from the hole to the film. For camera sizes one would normally use, and wavelengths around 550nm, this works out to be between a fifth of a millimeter and a third of a millimeter (or about the size of a pinhole).
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2012-02-10 03:42
    Maybe I'm a bit off... about 550nm or so... (Not a clue as to the real size of an atom)
    The thickness of the material, though, really is important.
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2012-02-10 07:24
    I think I've reached holes small enough to qualify for diffraction effects and need to measure their diameters but don't want to invest in expensive equipment.
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2012-02-10 07:30
    Just a single pinhole will make a good telescope for viewing the sun, large sunspots, and solar eclipses. You can get free holes like this using a large tree with lots of leaves that arrange in a semi occluding Fibonacci series. Just look at the ground or the tree's shadow to see some good formed solar images. Usually around eclipse time someone comes up with a photo of these crescent shapes projected on the side of a house or the ground.
  • ElectricAyeElectricAye Posts: 4,561
    edited 2012-02-10 07:41
    Humanoido wrote: »
    I think I've reached holes small enough to qualify for diffraction effects and need to measure their diameters but don't want to invest in expensive equipment.

    There's a physical relationship between the diffraction patterns, wavelength, and size of pinhole. Perhaps you can measure these diffraction rings if you have a laser or some kind of monochromatic light???

    Check out the calculator (you'll need to scroll down) on this link:

    http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/phyopt/cirapp2.html
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