Solar Furnace Suns Concentration

I think that this may be what people mean when they talk about
"non-imaging secondary" or "non-imaging concentrator" mirrors; do you
concur?

Ron

azt28@...
02/13/02 12:18 PM

Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002 02:42:42 -0000

Is it possible to direct a beam of 15,000 suns from the focal point
of a parabolic mirror down a path into a furnace chamber?

A parabolic mirror would produce a picture of the sun surface, you can't
get that way a concentration greather than what it is at the sun's
surface, ie 6000 K. To overcome that, you must destroy the sun picture ,
for example with a conic high refractive element. Your first mirror didn't
need a very precise surface, if it produce a bad picture it is not a
problem. What you need is a spot (sun picture) no larger than the cone
basis. Where did you want to put your device? In Earth orbit? In solar
orbit? Why not near the Sun?

Y. Bozzonetti.