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Canadian astronomer builds liquid mirror telescope
Canada - A Canadian astronomer has built a different kind of telescope that holds huge promise. It?s easy to build, cheap to operate and could have enormous value to NASA and other space programs. It?s called a Liquid Mirror Telescope.
Basically, it?s a spinning platform with a thin layer of mercury, the heavy metal used to determine temperature in many thermometers. The structure, built by University of British Columbia scientist Paul Hickson and his team in a garage-like building on a B.C. mountain clearing cost about $1 million. This is a fraction of the tens of millions regular glass-lensed telescopes cost. The pictures of stars, space debris and other celestial objects the telescope is taking are of excellent quality.