Progress on the Spacewatch 1.8-m Telescope and Upgrade of the Spacewatch 0.9-m Telescope

Details Progress on the Spacewatch 1.8-m Telescope and Upgrade of the Spacewatch 0.9-m Telescope Progress on the Spacewatch 1.8-m Telescope and Upgrade of the Spacewatch 0.9-m Telescope

Oct 2000

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000dps....32.2612m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS Meeting #32, #26.12; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 32, p.1042

Physics

Optics

3

Scientific paper

The Spacewatch 1.8-m telescope (Perry et al. 1996 BAAS 28,1096; McMillan et al. 1998 BAAS 30, 1114; Perry et al. 1998 Proc. SPIE 3351, 450-465) will be used to search for asteroids and comets anywhere from the space near Earth to regions beyond the orbit of Neptune, and to do astrometry on the fainter of such objects that are already known. Progress has been made toward making it operational. The primary and secondary mirrors have been installed. The servo-controlled friction drives for all three axes are operational. The telescope is being pointed and tracked on stars with a realtime video camera at folded prime focus. Motion is smooth and pointing is repeatable. Determination of the parameters to describe the inevitable small misalignments of the alt-az mount is under way. The distortionless coma corrector/field flattener is assembled and will be installed after the primary mirror is collimated to the instrument stage. The 2Kx2K CCD and its electronics are ready. The mosaic of CCDs on the 0.9-m Spacewatch Telescope is to increase the rate of coverage of sky, while the 1.8-m telescope will be used to observe fainter objects. We have taken delivery of four of Marconi Applied Technologies' (formerly EEV) 2048x4608 three-side buttable grade 1 CCDs with 13.5 micron square pixels. Electronics for control and readout are well along in development. New optics for the 0.9-m are required for the wider, flat, distortionless field, and to match the new pixel size to 1 arcsec on the sky. We have received the field corrector lenses and ordered the blank for the new primary mirror. Fabrication of the lens cell and mirror cell has begun. Development of the 1.8-m is funded by AFOSR, NASA, The Packard Foundation, The Kirsch Foundation, and others. The upgrade to the 0.9-m is funded by NASA and the Kirsch Foundation.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Progress on the Spacewatch 1.8-m Telescope and Upgrade of the Spacewatch 0.9-m 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 Progress on the Spacewatch 1.8-m Telescope and Upgrade of the Spacewatch 0.9-m Telescope, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Progress on the Spacewatch 1.8-m Telescope and Upgrade of the Spacewatch 0.9-m Telescope will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-866660