Optomechanical design of the Discovery Channel Telescope prime focus assembly

Charles Delp; Michael A. Duffy; Douglas Neill; Thomas A. Sebring

doi:10.1117/12.551728

29 September 2004 Optomechanical design of the Discovery Channel Telescope prime focus assembly

Charles Delp, Michael A. Duffy, Douglas Neill, Thomas A. Sebring

Proceedings Volume 5495, Astronomical Structures and Mechanisms Technology; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.551728
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2004, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Abstract

The Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT) is a 4.2m aperture telescope with a unique front end pod assembly that incorporates a secondary mirror assembly on one end, and a prime focus corrector group with focal plane instrument on the other. By flipping the pod end-for-end, the DCT is quickly converted from an f/6.13 Ritchey-Chretien telescope with a 21 arcminute field of view, to an f/1.9 two degree wide field prime focus camera. This paper describes the conceptual opto-mechanical design and performance assessment of the Prime Focus Assembly (PFA), including the pod interfaces, structures, optic mounts and the functions and configurations of the various mechanisms within the pod.

Citation Download Citation

Charles Delp, Michael A. Duffy, Douglas Neill, and Thomas A. Sebring "Optomechanical design of the Discovery Channel Telescope prime focus assembly", Proc. SPIE 5495, Astronomical Structures and Mechanisms Technology, (29 September 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.551728

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