Mezzocielo is a proposed innovative type of telescope, conceived for achieving simultaneous observations of the available sky using a single monocentric collecting optical unit and leaving to an array of optical correctors the purpose of detecting the final starlight. Thanks to a spherical array of field lenses, encompassing an optical fluid and illuminating the correctors, the telescope allows to realize a whole-sky surveying (the estimated Field of View is more than 10 thousand square degrees), with the aim of detect and observe space debris, even if other possibilities are available (the observatory could be configured for different astronomical purposes, like ecliptic observations, extragalactic monitoring or Milky Way monitoring). Objective of the present work is demonstrating the actual feasibility of this instrument and, at the same time, developing a model employable for its first sizing, namely for the selection of the most appropriate dimensions of the whole telescope and its most stressed component, according to the mechanical and hydraulic loads, the boundary conditions and few other constraints. The analytical procedure was eventually verified through a Finite Element Analysis of the most loaded field lens, which has demonstrated the reliability of our approach in terms of safety.
Mezzocielo (or "half of the sky") is a concept for a single large monocentric optical system composed by a tessellated spherical container filled with low refractive index liquid characterized by an extremely high transparency. This system allows for a continuous monitoring of the whole sky with a large number of mass produced correcting cameras. In comparison with existing projects is characterized by a high efficiency and by a relatively large aperture. The current status of development with the aim of producing a prototype of one meter class size is being reported.
Mezzocielo (or "half of the sky") is a concept for a new class of telescopes where a full spherical optical surface is made by filling with a liquid a structure built up with spherical lenses and almost covering an entire sphere. Lenses of the same class of existing ones can be arranged, for example like the faces of a dodecahedron, in order to build up a sphere in the 1 to 4m class in diameter. Liquid with low refractive index and high transparency are available in the electronic and cooling industry and made up devices with strong high order spherical aberrations but consistently identical over basically any direction in the sky simultaneously. An ensemble of moving correctors or a hemispherical array of the same kind of devices can feed a number of detectors lying in the range of the ten of thousands, making modern CMOS the only, today, viable solution to such a kind of futuristic facility.
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