ATST telescope mount: machine tool or telescope

Paul Jeffers; Günter Stolz; Giovanni Bonomi; Oliver Dreyer; Hans Kärcher

doi:10.1117/12.923838

27 September 2012 ATST telescope mount: telescope of machine tool

Paul Jeffers, Günter Stolz, Giovanni Bonomi, Oliver Dreyer, Hans Kärcher

Proceedings Volume 8444, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes IV; 84443T (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.923838
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

The Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) will be the largest solar telescope in the world, and will be able to provide the sharpest views ever taken of the solar surface. The telescope has a 4m aperture primary mirror, however due to the off axis nature of the optical layout, the telescope mount has proportions similar to an 8 meter class telescope. The technology normally used in this class of telescope is well understood in the telescope community and has been successfully implemented in numerous projects. The world of large machine tools has developed in a separate realm with similar levels of performance requirement but different boundary conditions. In addition the competitive nature of private industry has encouraged development and usage of more cost effective solutions both in initial capital cost and thru-life operating cost. Telescope mounts move relatively slowly with requirements for high stability under external environmental influences such as wind buffeting. Large machine tools operate under high speed requirements coupled with high application of force through the machine but with little or no external environmental influences. The benefits of these parallel development paths and the ATST system requirements are being combined in the ATST Telescope Mount Assembly (TMA). The process of balancing the system requirements with new technologies is based on the experience of the ATST project team, Ingersoll Machine Tools who are the main contractor for the TMA and MT Mechatronics who are their design subcontractors. This paper highlights a number of these proven technologies from the commercially driven machine tool world that are being introduced to the TMA design. Also the challenges of integrating and ensuring that the differences in application requirements are accounted for in the design are discussed.

Citation Download Citation

Paul Jeffers, Günter Stolz, Giovanni Bonomi, Oliver Dreyer, and Hans Kärcher "ATST telescope mount: telescope of machine tool", Proc. SPIE 8444, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes IV, 84443T (27 September 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.923838

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