Practicality of Gold Foil Reflectors

[calbiterol]

I would like to make a double-parabolic mirror like the one here for a project. How good of a reflector would gold leaf be? Would it be better, worse, or about the same as aluminum foil? Keep in mind, I'm going for the quality of the reproduced image.

 

Thanks

 

P.S. Any hints on how to get a hold of the exact dimensions of the parabola they use? Thanks.

[ecoli]

wow, I can't believe that the list price is 45 bucks. That's ridiculous!

 

 

http://www.3dimagery.com/partone.html - there's a section on making parabolic mirrors in this link

[calbiterol]

wow' date=' I can't believe that the list price is 45 bucks. That's ridiculous!

[/quote']

 

Which is exactly why I wanted to make my own - that and the customizable size.

[calbiterol]

[url=http://www.3dimagery.com/partone.html]http://www.3dimagery.com/partone.html[/url'] - there's a section on making parabolic mirrors in this link

 

I didn't see it - all I saw was a section on the creation of a hologram system that uses parabolic mirrors and a section on the parabolic mirror used - nothing about the actual creation. Am I missing it?

[calbiterol]

Gr, I don't want to triple post but I can't edit any more!

 

Does anyone know if gold leaf is transparent/translucent to IR and/or UV spectrum light?

[drizzt]

im not sure about gold leaf but you would probably be better off getting the dish chromed, it wouldent cost that much, depending on where u lived. they also sell 5 gal trpiplechrome kits at caswell plating " http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/index.html?source=overture&OVRAW=caswell&OVKEY=caswell&OVMTC=standard ".

 

im almost positive chrome would produce a better image quality than aluminum foil or gold leaf

 

 

well scratch the triple chrome kit lol, or any of them they cost twice as much as a prebuilt hologram dish, but i left the link up anyway because they have good deals on powder coating and black krome kits. just in case any 1 is into do it yourself parts

[calbiterol]

I know this isn't exactly the place to ask (after all, this isn't in physics), but you wouldn't happen to know if chrome is IR and/or UV transparent/translucent, would you?

[drizzt]

that would be hard to say because there are different kinds of chrome

the kit i use, has three steps first you coat it in copper, then nickel, and then chrome it.

 

then there is hard chrome wich is just a single layer of chrome on polished metal

 

this is just a guess mind you but i would say chrome is not transparent/translucent to uv or ir. its the same as a mirror but with steel your temprature range will be different so the image might not get distorted as much depending on the tinsel strength of the steel (anyway there are always so many variables if you ask me try the cheapest way first and then improve on that thats what i do )

[calbiterol]

Well... A huge part of the issue is that it needs to be IR/UV transparent/translucent. At the moment, I think I only need it to be UV transparent, but I'm not sure. Anyways, any thoughts on UV translucent but visible reflective materials? Fluoridated quartz perhaps, if there is such a thing? (Fluoridated glass is used in lenses, I believe...)

[calbiterol]

I take that back, I need it to be transparent to both, I believe...

 

Oh, and gold leaf is only like $2 for 4" x 4" squares.