Utah truck driver built the world's largest amateur telescope with a mirror diameter of 1.8 meters

Not so long ago, Habré published news about the world's largest telescope . It is unlikely that an even larger telescope will appear in the near future - a lot of resources are required to create such a system, and not every region is suitable for building giant telescopes.

After reading this publication, I was curious - and what amateur telescope can be called the largest in the world? It turns out that such a telescope, with a mirror diameter of 1.8 meters, was built by a Utah truck driver Mike Clements.
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This man is one of those who does not forget his dreams, and is not afraid of difficulties. For 15 years, he hatched the idea of ​​creating his telescope, driving his truck 8-9 hours a day, 6 days a week.

According to the author of the largest amateur telescope in the world, all his life he felt a quivering feeling to such systems. He always liked to look at the stars, and also to create telescopes of his own design, of course, not very big and not the most complex.

Mike not only dreamed, he gradually, step by step, tried to embody his dream. So, he was actively thinking about the possible construction of his telescope, and after a while he was lucky: at the auction they managed to buy a slightly defective mirror, which was made for a spy satellite, but the edge of the mirror was chipped. Michael bought this mirror, weighing 400 kilograms, back in 2005, and set aside "for the future."

It is worth noting that Mike very often faced with a lack of understanding of others, many people from his entourage told him that he could never create the telescope he was dreaming about. Someone said that such work can be done only by a professional, someone that the mirror will never work normally, because it is defective. Nevertheless, Mike coped with the task on the "excellent", having built a complex system for his 51st anniversary.


The height of the structure is 10 meters, the diameter of the main mirror is 1.8 meters, the secondary one is 90 centimeters

It is also interesting that Mike never made preliminary design options: he developed the entire structure in his mind using information about smaller telescopes. To test the capabilities of mirrors and help create an optical system for his telescope, Mike was helped by his friend, optics specialist Steve Dodds. It was Steve who calculated that the height of the structure for mirrors of this size should be about 10 meters.

Steve also gave Mike 5 acres of his land to build a system. Mike has his own land, but in a region that for some reason is worse suited to accommodate a telescope.





By the way, back in the mid-90s, a team of amateur astronomers calling themselves Group 70 made an attempt to build a telescope of a similar size. But Group 70 did not succeed: there was not enough finance.

Mike followed that project and tried to take into account all the flaws in his own project. He does not say how much money he invested in his telescope, but for several years in a row he had to live on the minimum amount, denying himself the essentials. Everything else went on to create a telescope.

The author of the project had to silver the 1.8-meter glass independently; it turned out to be done only on the second attempt.

And after installing the mirrors in the building he created, Mike was able to test his telescope. It remains only to imagine how exciting the moment of the first test was, and what Mike felt. According to him, he was very worried that the opponents of the project would be right, and nothing would work out.

Directing a telescope to the moon, he saw a horribly curved surface, and decided that everything was gone. But it turned out that he sees the lunar crater, with a huge increase, which exceeded all his expectations.

No problems, everything worked perfectly. True, the telescope does not have engines, and it is necessary to direct the system to one or another object using a manual drive.

The construction of the telescope took Mike 18 months, that is, a year and a half. The telescope was named KH-12, and now serves as a former truck driver, and the current amateur astronomer, faithfully.

Via dailymail