Thursday 29 August 2013

CONCEPT - The Multi Eyed Organic Telescope

We have telescopes, optical and otherwise, that massively multiply the aperture of the individual telescopes concerned by combining their light slash information, into one focal point, or place.

Probably the original design of this type was the Multiple Mirror Telescope in Arizona, where 6 1.8 metre mirrors operated in combination to produce the light gathering capacity of a 4.5 metre one, in a revolutionary design like a football, on an altazimuth mount.

The Multiple Mirror Telescope

The concept was used in radio astronomy, such as the Very Large Array, where it resulted in a radio telescope with an effective diameter of 27 miles or so.

The Very Large Array

So, as I patrolled the racking in my workplace, letting my brain escape from the confines of the stifling warehouse, and uncomfortable polyester uniform, I thought of replicating a similar instrument, but with the human eye...

What would you see, I wondered, if you were to somehow network every pair of fully operational eyes on the planet, and get them to all look at the same thing in the sky? Collating the information at a single nexus  - presumably done by scientists with non networked eyes, because that would get freaky - what would be the result. If you got half a billion eyes to look up at the Andromeda galaxy, would you get a superior result from one pair of eyes looking alone? 

And then, on a smaller scale, get a hundred folk to stand round a statue and look at it, to get a really good three dimensional image of it? If lots of people look at a fly, would you see it in great detail?

Or really, is this just an excuse to come out with a fantastic way of giving everyone the mega-willies? People walking around with 3g slats in the backs of their heads, wifi ariels installed in their spleens...non-concensual installation of eyeball CCDs on people's retinas as they beg for mercy?


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