Design brief for the new CTAO telescope array appears to be "make them look like implausible props from a sci-fi movie" and I am in love

[ferngirl@det.social]

@jonty yeah, that's beautiful

[ides_dev@mastodon.social]

@jonty new Null Sector prop just dropped: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaging_atmospheric_Cherenkov_telescope#/media/File:The_MAGIC_Telescope_at_night.jpg

[jonty@chaos.social]

And now I find out the telescope mirrors are focused using lasers and it looks like THIS

[ivor@social.ivor.org]

@jonty Whoa! This is so cool...

[mordecai@chaos.social]

@jonty I see the Nod brotherhood is up to something again

[lpbkdotnet@mstdn.social]

@jonty I really want a model of it as a desk ornament

I guess it's time to find a deal on ~200 laser diodes, some mirror tiles, and give the 3d printer a bit of a workout

[jtruk@mastodon.social]

@jonty Enhance.
I think I can see @gsuberland in the DJ booth bang centre of that dish?

[thechaoszone@chaos.social]

@jonty NullSector-core

[bencc@morehammer.uk]

@jonty hmm, some of them are square mirrors? That’s disappointing.

[mexicals@mastodon.social]

@bencc @jonty squares are not the bestagons

[bencc@morehammer.uk]

@Mexicals @jonty Indeed not. I feel like their paper model PDF needs a proper version too: https://www.ctao.org/wp-content/uploads/LST_Paper_Model_Sept2025.pdf

[boxly@hachyderm.io]

@lpbkdotnet @jonty I was planning to make a slightly smaller and cost optimised version of this for EMF next time https://petrvacek.com/portfolio/fluidum/

[bencc@morehammer.uk]

@Mexicals @jonty It doesn't look like there's any square mirrors, so I wonder if this was from pre-mirror testing.

[queekusme@mastodon.scot]

@jonty someone needs to do this as an installation for EMFCamp28, this is cool as fuck!

[lpbkdotnet@mstdn.social]

@boxly @jonty that would be amazing!

Also, serious death-ray potential if it's as sunny as it was this year

[boxly@hachyderm.io]

@lpbkdotnet @jonty I'm not sure if that is something to mitigate or take advantage of

[lpbkdotnet@mstdn.social]

@boxly @jonty "yes!"

[unnick@booping.synth.download]

@lpbkdotnet@mstdn.social @jonty@chaos.social i think you could make do with just 1 laser by using diffraction gratings to split it

[whitequark@social.treehouse.systems]

@jonty long exposure shot right

[gsuberland@chaos.social]

@jtruk @jonty haaa