Astronomical Research with Liquid Mirror Telescopes
Ermanno F. Borra

TL;DR
Liquid mirror telescopes offer a cost-effective, versatile tool for astronomical research, enabling large-scale surveys and cosmological studies that were previously impractical due to high costs.
Contribution
This paper introduces the potential of liquid mirror telescopes for zenith observing and large-scale surveys, highlighting their advantages and specific research applications in cosmology.
Findings
LMTs can conduct variability surveys detecting thousands of supernovae annually.
LMT surveys can identify numerous MACHOs in galaxy clusters and background galaxies.
Spectrophotometric surveys with LMTs can discriminate cosmological models effectively.
Abstract
Liquid mirror telescopes are of interest to Astronomy because of their very low capital and operating costs. Low cost has a potentially revolutionary impact since it allows one to dedicate a large telescope to a narrowly focused project that needs a large quantity of observations. The technology is now well proven in the laboratory as well as in observatory settings and is stepping into the mainstream of astronomical research. This paper has two main purposes. a) To acquaint the astronomical community with LMT zenith observing and to illustrate the LMT advantage with specific examples of research topics of current interest that could be carried out only with LMTs because of their low costs. I argue that LMTs are more versatile than generally thought and that the challenge is to use LMTs in such ways as to maximize their advantages and minimize their disadvantages. I briefly review…
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Taxonomy
TopicsAdaptive optics and wavefront sensing · Advanced optical system design · Optical Systems and Laser Technology
