I've been playing around with solar collectors/cookers for a number of years now. I first got the idea from this page: http://amasci.com/amateur/mirror.html. I tried making one 2 feet on a side but could never get it to focus properly. Quite a while later I found this page: http://solarcooking.org/plans/funnel.htm
and successfully made a number of solar cookers with this design. I also tried making a paper mache hemisphere over an 18'' balloon lined with foil. It worked well but was difficult to point at anything due to its shape. I recently found an abandoned satellite dish on the side of the road. I took it home, threw it on my pile of "Projects To Get To Some Day," and started keeping and eye out for the mylar I knew I had stashed somewhere in the garage. In the meantime I came across this: http://www.cockeyed.com/incredible/solardish/dish01.shtm. Wow! That got me motivated to dig in the garage till I found the mylar. This is the result.
