I am looking for a giant 13 feet in diameter optical magnifying lens?

Question

more expensive than the hubble...am I barking up the wrong tree? Can water serve as an amplifier?

Answer 1

It will collapse due to its own weight.Not possible to make one at huge diameter.You may try reflective mirror with Aluminum foil!

Answer 2

The trouble with inflatable structures is that they do not have a precise enough shape to focus visible light.  They can be OK for longer wavelength radio waves.

You can create very large mirrors by spin casting.  That's how the 8 meter mirrors are made.

But you don't have to wait for the mirror to cool.  There's at least one telescope where the mirror is made of mercury, and it is spun to keep it's shape.  The Large Zenith Telescope in Canada is a 5 meter mirror telescope built this way.  You can't tilt such a scope much.

For very large telescopes, like supercomputers, price performance is everything.  So you're always looking for something cheap. You never have infinite money.

Answer 3

i think you can but it would be very very expensive. i think water may help a little but im not sure how to get it to stay in the focuser shape. a big concave glass tank?

Answer 4

The Hubble is a concave reflector.  You can produce a very large concave reflector by rotating a tank filled with mercury.

Answer 5

I imagine you don't know much about telescopes.

Lenses are used in refracting telescopes. Mirror are used in reflecting telescopes. Every single large telescope is a reflecting telescope because, quite simply, large refracting telescopes are not worth the effort.

Why are they not worth the effort? because they have incredibly long focal lengths. The largest refracting telescope ever built had a diameter of 1.25 meters and a focal length of 57 meters. If anyone builds large refracting telescopes nowadays, it is only for highly specialized purposes and certainly not for looking into space.

As to price, the Keck Telescope, a 10 meter reflecting telescope in Hawaii, cost $70 million in 1985. I imagine you don't have that kind of money or you could pay experts to tell you that your idea is insane instead of asking here.

Finally, and perhaps I should have addressed this first, you are asking about 2 different things. A magnifying glass is one thing. The Hubble Space Telescope is another thing. Are you looking for a magnifying glass or a telescope?

Answer 6

No, you will not find a lens that large.

There are arrays of mirrors out in the desert, arranged in a parabolic fashion and aimed at a focal point where the sunlight is concentrated to heat a steam generator, (or some other device for collecting the heat and converting it into electricity.)

Here's a picture of one.

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