Telescope light weight reflector
Lightweight Telescope Reflector
Recently Valley Design Corp. finished a job for an observatory in Spain. The task was to come up with a lightweight reflector approximately 18"x 26" to be used in a 30 meter diameter telescope.
The material chosen for this project was an Aluminum honeycomb panel, purchased from Plascore Inc. in Zeeland, Michigan. The panels were 2″ thick and flat to about .005″. The total weight of these pieces is only 9 lbs. Valley Design Corp. machined these parts to flatness requirement of 10 microns ( @ .00040″).
There are numerous applications that could benefit from the use of these light weight panels. The surface could even be hardcoated and then polished. Contact us with your specific requirements.