Making a liquid mirror telescope

Audio Guide:

Isaac Newton discovered that reflective liquid like mercury and glycerin would form a paraboloidal shape in rotation, and can be used as the main lens of a reflective telescope. Due to gravity, this type of liquid telescope can only be used to observe the sky vertically above the telescope.


Visitors can operate the lens of the liquid telescope on display.

Exhibit Introduction:

Rotating a reflective liquid such as mercury or glycerin will form a convex parabolic surface. Newton had discovered very early on that rotating a container filled with liquids results in a perfect parabolic surface, which can act as the primary lense in a reflective telescope. However, due to the direction of gravity, the telescope can only perform verticle observations, but can't be turned to different angles.