Fun Fact: Diffractive optics exhibit chromatic aberration in the opposite direction to Refractive optics, so the two can be used together to cancel each other out!
Of course, that doesn’t help with the weight on a space-based telescope, but it was being considered quite frequently for VR Headsets a few years ago.
It can do dense translation, translation + rotation, Affine, and Homography alignment; I've used it in the past to do sub-pixel Aruco/AprilTag alignment (and I'd probably also use it for astrophotography).
Are you kidding? If someone really has good evidence for the Earth being flat, that could potentially be one of the most important observations of all time!
As the Litany of Tarski goes:
“If the Earth is flat, I desire to believe the Earth is flat…” etc.
(Though, I will admit that it gets boring later when you’ve heard all the arguments and rebuttals.)
Since the train only shakes side to side (and not up-down or forwards-backwards), you only really need spring dampening along one axis.
While you could set up a linear rail with some pretensioned bungie cables (similar to how the Hover Glide backpacks work), I’d recommend using parallel leaf springs as they’re lightweight, low-form factor, mechanically simple, and low stiffness.
The key to supporting human weight is to replace the thin plastic leaf springs with sheet metal. You can also add more springs in parallel (increasing the weight it can support, but reducing the travel).
Of course, that doesn’t help with the weight on a space-based telescope, but it was being considered quite frequently for VR Headsets a few years ago.