Many segments and few dollars: SALT solutions for ELTs?

Details Many segments and few dollars: SALT solutions for ELTs? Many segments and few dollars: SALT solutions for ELTs?

Jul 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004spie.5382..245b&link_type=abstract

Second Backaskog Workshop on Extremely Large Telescopes. Edited by Ardeberg, Arne L.; Andersen, Torben. Proceedings of the SPI

Physics

Optics

Scientific paper

The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) is a little over 18 months away from completion (in early 2005). It is based on the innovative tilted-Arecibo optical analog, first pioneered by the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET). By the end of 2003, all major subsystems, including the verification instrument, will be in place and the commissioning of them begun. Tests of a 7-segment subset of the mirror array, including the Shack-Hartmann alignment instrument, the mirror actuators, capacitive edge sensors and active control system has recently started. The first engineering on-sky tests involving the complete light path, from object to detector, have begun. SALT's primary mirror consists of 91 identical segments mounted on a 9 point whiffle tree mount, using three actuators to control tip and tilt, and a foil-type capacitive edge sensor to detect mirror misalignment. These 480 relatively affordable sensors are permanently attached to the segment edges, and are capable of measuring all misalignment modes, including global radius of curvature. This sensing system, used together with a Shack-Hartman wavefront instrument at the center of curvature, controls the primary mirror array, and could be scaled to an array of the size envisaged for an ELT. SALT has developed some innovative designs improvement over the original HET concept. These include a more effective spherical aberration corrector (SAC), interferometric distance sensing and laser auto-collimation of the prime focus payload, the use of newly developed efficient and durable mirror coatings on the SAC optics, and the use of economical low expansion ceramics for the primary mirror segments. These innovative and cost effective solutions used on SALT have potential applications to ELT designs.

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