WOW! LIQUID MIRROR TELESCOPES ON THE MOON??

Maybe so, or maybe no, but astrophysicists don't want to be left out of the action if moon-missions come back!

[Curiously enough, the Catholic Church and so-called real-deal Science are not, nor can they ever be, in fundamental conflict. We discussed this under the able guidance of one of our Deacons here at Brackettville's St. Mary Magdalene's Church at last Sunday's Parish Faith Sharing meeting.

For example, the online version of the Catholic Encyclopedia of around 1912-1914 or so, that was originally published under the auspices of the Vatican when Pope St. Pius X was in charge, seems to indicate that based on the limitations of geological science of that era, the earth was estimated to be some 900 million years old, more or less.]

Science News, March 24, 2007. By Ron Cowen.

"A bucket would be big enough to carry the material to make the 100 meter wide telescope that designer Roger Angel of the University of Arizona in Tucson is proposing for the moon's south pole.

"Instead of being made of glass, Angel's mirror would consist of of a low-temperature liquid.

"When set spinning in a wide ocntainer, the liquid would flow away from the center so the surface would form one of the most prized shapes in astronomy -- a parabola.

"The parabolic mirror would focus onto a single point of the light from objects at any distance.

"Smaller-scale liquid-mirror telescopes have already ben built on Earth and are far cheaper than comparable telescopes made of a single piece of glass or of several joined glass segments.

"A liquid-mirror telescope on the moon has a huge advantage over such a device on Earth, notes Angel.

"The moon's axis of rotation stays fixed with respect to the distant heavens, so a liquid mirror telescope placed at one of the lunar poles would always see the same stars and galaxies overhead.

"Such a telescope could make an extraordinarily deep portrait of its overlying patch [of sky].

"Over months to years, it might see back to the time more than 13.5 billion years ago, when the earliest stars came to life, Angel says."