Liquid Mirror Telescopes: History

A history of Liquid Mirror Telescope (LMT) experimentation is provided. The concept can be traced to Ernesto Capocci of the Naples Observatory (1850), but it was not until 1872 that Henry Skey of the Dunedin Observatory in New Zealand constructed the rst working laboratory LMT. The 1909 experiments by Robert Wood at Johns Hopkins University exposed some of the strengths and weaknesses of the LMT as an astronomical tool. The recent work of Ermanno Borra and colleagues at Laval University has culminated with the realization of large di raction-limited mirrors. An o shoot of the Laval laboratory research is the University of British Columbia/Laval fully-automated 2.7-meter f/1.9 LMT, a prototype deep-sky survey instrument.