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The Gyroscope Forum |
20 May 2024 17:33
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Welcome to the gyroscope forum. If you have a question about gyroscopes in general,
want to know how they work, or what they can be used for then you can leave your question here for others to answer.
You may also be able to help others by answering some of the questions on the site.
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Question |
| Asked by: |
Peter Abrahams |
| Subject: |
gyroscopes & telescopes |
| Question: |
Has anyone heard of mounting a gyro on a telescope?
Say you were to place a telescope, a smaller refractor for example, in a free moving 3 axis gimbal. Then mount a gyroscope on the tube, near the center of gravity. It would have to be a precision gyro to avoid vibrations. With the gyro spinning, if you point the telescope at a star, it should stay on the star as the earth turns beneath it.
I wouldn't say it was an easy way to track a star.
But back in the great days of mechanical engineering, the late 1800s, someone might well have done this.
Since Foucault is associated with gyroscopes & with telescopes, I'm sure he thought of this.....is there any evidence he tried this?
thanks
Peter Abrahams
http://home.europa.com/~telscope/binotele.htm |
| Date: |
6 April 2004
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Answers (Ordered by Date)
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| Answer: |
webmaster@gyroscopes.org - 06/06/2004 21:05:51
| | | I know gyroscopes have been used to position telescopes indirectly (motors control the direction and the gyroscopes sense the earths/telescopes rotation).
I can't say I've heard of anyone directly attaching a gyroscope to a telescope to steady or to dampen vibrations. However some military binoculars do have such a setup. I've seen pictures of ones with a gyroscope attached underneath (cude) and ones with gyroscopes directly connected to the optics/mirrors. They come up on ebay about once a year.
I'm sure Foucault must have thought about bringing a gyroscope and a telescope together, yet to see any reference that he did.
Interestingly one of the earliest references to a gyroscope (the term gyroscope is not used) is a seron's speculum. This in effects acts like a gyroscopic sextant and was used breifly by the navy around 1754. To look at, its basically a large spinning top with a mirror on to. You have it on the deck, while the the ship rolls around the mirror stays flat.
Get back to me if you find out anything more.
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