World's Largest Segmented Mirror Built by Kodak for New Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory.ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 8, 1997--Eastman Kodak Company's Commercial & Government Systems (C&GS) unit announced today that the world's largest optical reflecting surface has been delivered as a key component in the Hobby-Eberly telescope The Hobby-Eberly Telescope is a 9.2 m telescope located at the McDonald Observatory (). The telescope is named for former Texas Lieutenant-Governor Bill Hobby and for Robert E. Eberly, a Penn State benefactor. (HET). Final completion of spare mirror segment fabrication fabrication (fab´rikā´sh  n),n the construction or making of a restoration. is expected early in 1998. The Hobby-Eberly telescope is located at McDonald Observatory McDonald Observatory, astronomical observatory located on Mt. Locke, near Fort Davis, Tex.; founded in 1932, sponsored by the Univ. of Texas in cooperation with the Univ. of Chicago. Its equipment includes 107-in. (272-cm), 82-in. (208-cm), 32-in. (81-cm), and 30-in. in the Davis Mountains Davis Mountains, W Tex., SE of El Paso. Old Baldy, 8,382 ft (2,555 m), is the highest peak. Forested slopes, springs, and deep canyons attract tourists. On the summit of Mt. Locke, 6,791 ft (2,070 m) high, is the Univ. of Texas McDonald Observatory (est. of far West Texas and is being commissioned by five universities. "The Hobby-Eberly telescope and its 10-meter primary mirror represent great engineering accomplishments at a low price and Kodak has played a significant role with hardware design, testing assistance and in optical fabrication work," said Victor L. Krabbendam, chief engineer and manager with the Hobby-Eberly telescope project. The innovative design and the use of off-the-shelf technology made it possible to construct the Hobby-Eberly telescope for a total price of $13.5 millionQabout one-sixth the cost of the two other segmented primary mirror telescopes of comparable size in the world, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. HET sources. Kodak engineers from the Precision Optics Group within the Image Acquisitions Systems unit of C&GS worked collaboratively with HET to design and test the primary mirror segment support structure and were also involved extensively in other design and analysis work related to the telescope. "Those of us on the Kodak team are very proud of our ability to provide low cost and highly efficient support," said Frank Carbone, Kodak's program manager for the HET effort. "For example, we were able to dramatically reduce the time and cost of producing these extremely accurate primary mirror segments through the use of ion figuring, a Kodak proprietary optical fabrication technology." The ion figuring process finishes the final shape of an optical surface using an Argon argon (är`gŏn) [Gr.,=inert], gaseous chemical element; symbol Ar; at. no. 18; at. wt. 39.948; m.p. −189.2°C;; b.p. −185.7°C;; density 1.784 grams per liter at STP; valence 0. ion beam Noun 1. ion beam - a beam of ions moving in the same direction at the same speed ionic beam particle beam - a collimated flow of particles (atoms or electrons or molecules) operating in a vacuum chamber. The system is computer controlled using specialized software. The 10-meter Hobby-Eberly primary mirror has a 26-meter radius of curvature Noun 1. radius of curvature - the radius of the circle of curvature; the absolute value of the reciprocal of the curvature of a curve at a given point radius, r - the length of a line segment between the center and circumference of a circle or sphere and the curvature of the 91 mirror segments may not deviate from one another by more than 0.5 mm. Kodak employed innovative optical metrology techniques to meet this and other demanding requirements of the mirror segment design. The light gathering power of large telescopes is determined by the area of their primary mirrors. The Hobby-Eberly telescope will be able to gather light from objects close to 100 million times fainter than the unaided human eye can see. The Hobby-Eberly telescope is the world's first major telescope designed specifically for spectroscopy; the measurement and analysis of individual wavelengths of light from celestial objects. The primary mirror is curved in the shape of a partial sphere, unlike the parabolic par·a·bol·ic also par·a·bol·i·cal adj. 1. Of or similar to a parable. 2. Of or having the form of a parabola or paraboloid. mirrors used in comparable telescopes. Because of this, each of the mirror segments could be made by Kodak to be identical in shape and curvature. All of the segments were produced by the same method and any segment can be used to replace another, a key cost-saving aspect of the telescope. Kodak is based in Rochester, N.Y., and is a world leader in large optics manufacturing and offers capabilities unmatched in the production of high precision optical components and assemblies. -0- Editor's Note Editor's Note (foaled in 1993 in Kentucky) is an American thoroughbred Stallion racehorse. He was sired by 1992 U.S. Champion 2 YO Colt Forty Niner, who in turn was a son of Champion sire Mr. Prospector and out of the mare, Beware Of The Cat. Trained by D. : For additional information about Kodak, visit our web site on the Internet at: www.kodak.com/ CONTACT: Eastman Kodak Company Paul C. Allen (716) 724-5802 (voice) (716) 724-0964 (fax) pcallen@kodak.com (e-mail) |
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