Re: Consulting the Geek Oracle: Wallpaper
Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2019 6:40 pm
No comment on ZZ Top (not my cuppa).trill wrote:What's ZZ-Top got to do with it !?Chas wrote:orbit around a Lagrange point
"sectors" ? Like, pie-shaped ? How are the different wavelengths de-scrambled ?Chas wrote:usually have many sectors, each with a different coating
Inquiring minds want to know !
trill
But in terms of the sectors, the slice of pie is the correct description. Typically the shorter wavelengths will have bigger sectors because the sun's output goes down at shorter wavelengths. On one telescope I remember, the three shortest wavelengths were quadrants, then there were maybe four or five in the last quadrant.
The wavelengths are determined by the coatings. You can think of the multilayer coatings as either a large-spacing synthetic crystal or a very compressed laser (dielectric) mirror. The period (spacing, layer thickness) of the coating is half an optical wavelength, so a shorter-spaced multilayer reflects a shorter wavelength. There's an aperture in front of the entrance of the telescope that selects which sector is illuminated, so this is how they select the wavelength.