2021-11-12

[public] 1.80M views, 33.9K likes, dislikes audio only

AlphaPhoenix

After a bit of a hiatus, AlphaPhoenix is live again! In this video I print some parts, coat them in resin, and chemically silver that resin surface, making a first-surface mirror akin to telescope optics but MUCH less precise. (also I use said silvering process to make a play button with actual silver!) Hope you enjoy the classic story of scientific failure and iteration, and maybe learn something about mirrors while you're here!

If anybody is curious to try this themselves, this is very much not a sponsored video, but I was using Smooth-On's XTC-3D as my smoothing agent and Angel Guilding's Spray-Silvering chemicals to deposit the silver. if anybody knows more about these products that might explain some of the difficulties I've had, I'd be all ears!

Technique loosely based on this very interesting paper from Vaidya and Solgaard:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326424393_3D_printed_optics_with_nanometer_scale_surface_roughness

Music Credits, etc.:

I Dunno by grapes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

http://ccmixter.org/files/grapes/16626

Arcadia - Wonders by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100326

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Till With Bell.wav from Benboncan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license

Arecibo Telescope picture - David Broad