Design of a lightweight telescope with highly stable line of sight

Anees Ahmad; Robert H. Wright; Todd A. Baker

doi:10.1117/12.363810

28 September 1999 Design of a lightweight telescope with highly stable line of sight

Anees Ahmad, Robert H. Wright, Todd A. Baker

Proceedings Volume 3786, Optomechanical Engineering and Vibration Control; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.363810
Event: SPIE's International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation, 1999, Denver, CO, United States

Abstract

The weight and line of sight (LOS) stability are very critical in telescopes used for remote sensing and imaging in the presence of high dynamic loads and vibrations. A high stiffness and low-density material such as beryllium is ideally suited for such applications in spite of its high cost. This paper presents the design of an all-beryllium off-axis telescope in which the three diamond-machined mirrors are pinned and bolted to an extremely lightweight and stiff support structure. A number of design and fabrication techniques were employed to minimize the cost of material and fabrication. The importance of machining tolerances for optimizing the cost and yield of mirrors is also described.

Citation Download Citation

Anees Ahmad, Robert H. Wright, and Todd A. Baker "Design of a lightweight telescope with highly stable line of sight", Proc. SPIE 3786, Optomechanical Engineering and Vibration Control, (28 September 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.363810

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