We review the present status of liquid mirror telescopes. Interferometric tests of liquid mirrors (the largest one having a diameter of 2.5 meters) show excellent optical qualities. The basic technology is now sufficiently reliable that it can be put to work. Indeed, a handful of liquid mirrors have now been built that are used for scientific work. A 3.7-m diameter LMT is presently being built in the new Laval upgraded testing facilities. Construction of the mirror can be followed on the Web site: http://astrosun.phy.ulaval.ca/lmt/lmt-home.html. Finally we address the issue of the field accessible to LMTs equipped with novel optical correctors. Optical design work, and some exploratory laboratory work, indicate that a single LMT should be able to access, with excellent images, small regions anywhere inside fields as large as 45 degrees.
[1]
Gerard Lemaitre.
Various Aspects Of Active Optics
,
1989,
Defense, Security, and Sensing.
[2]
Lloyd B. Robinson,et al.
Instrumentation for Ground-Based Optical Astronomy
,
1988
.
[3]
David W. Latham,et al.
Instrumentation for ground-based optical astronomy. Present and future. The Ninth Santa Cruz Summer Workshop in Astronomy and Astrophysics,held at the Lick Observatory, Santa Cruz, CA, USA, 13 - 24 July 1987.
,
1988
.