Someone has been playing around with solar collectors like parabolic mirrors for cooking in the backyard, parabolas or nearly so. What happens to the rays passing through the focus to radiate any direction, upto 180º. Depending on the perfectness of the parabola OR NOT, is there not a liklihood of dangerously high radiation, maybe millions of times greater than natural sunlight, that can be focused on small areas, hot spots, anywhere remotely in front of your dish, the closer you get to it, the very much worse it must be for you.
I expect someone with better knowledge than I of optics, to be able to discuss the inherent dangers, also taking into account that many of these mirrors are far from perfect, an example of their construction being petals of aluminium polished sheet bent into a rough parabola with dents, flat spots and bulges, and the pot might not be at the focus.
I suspect that these things are VERY DANGEROUS even in small sizes and any accuracy, and may be damaging to not only eyes or skin.
I expect someone with better knowledge than I of optics, to be able to discuss the inherent dangers, also taking into account that many of these mirrors are far from perfect, an example of their construction being petals of aluminium polished sheet bent into a rough parabola with dents, flat spots and bulges, and the pot might not be at the focus.
I suspect that these things are VERY DANGEROUS even in small sizes and any accuracy, and may be damaging to not only eyes or skin.