The drive system of the Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov Telescope

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

15 pages, 12 (10) figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physics, a high resolution version of the paper (particularly fig. 1) is

Scientific paper

10.1016/j.astropartphys.2008.12.

The MAGIC telescope is an imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope, designed to observe very high energy gamma-rays while achieving a low energy threshold. One of the key science goals is fast follow-up of the enigmatic and short lived gamma-ray bursts. The drive system for the telescope has to meet two basic demands: (1) During normal observations, the 72-ton telescope has to be positioned accurately, and has to track a given sky position with high precision at a typical rotational speed in the order of one revolution per day. (2) For successfully observing GRB prompt emission and afterglows, it has to be powerful enough to position to an arbitrary point on the sky within a few ten seconds and commence normal tracking immediately thereafter. To meet these requirements, the implementation and realization of the drive system relies strongly on standard industry components to ensure robustness and reliability. In this paper, we describe the mechanical setup, the drive control and the calibration of the pointing, as well as present measurements of the accuracy of the system. We show that the drive system is mechanically able to operate the motors with an accuracy even better than the feedback values from the axes. In the context of future projects, envisaging telescope arrays comprising about 100 individual instruments, the robustness and scalability of the concept is emphasized.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

The drive system of the Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov Telescope does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The drive system of the Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov Telescope, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The drive system of the Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov Telescope will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-323155

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.