The Hamburg Robotic Telescope

Telescope

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The Telescope

Status (February 2009):
The HRT telescope was delivered to Hamburg for testing in July 2002. It was returned to the manufacturer in May 2004 to improve some compononts of minor importance while the general performance was found to be good. It was re-installed at Hamburg for commissioning in July 2005 and then tested. The telescope performance meets or even exceeds the specifications (see the test webpages). A much more detailed description is the diploma thesis written by Marco Mittag (in German).

Manufacturer:
Main contractor and mechanics:
Halfmann Teleskoptechnik
Some subcontractors:
Optics: Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH; picture of the main mirror
Electronics: RS Elektronik GmbH Augsburg
Software: 4PI Systeme GmbH Sonneberg

The basics
Type Cassegrain-Nasmyth with FOV corrector
Alt/Az mounting
Fully robotic

Optics
Primary mirror M1: aperture 1200mm, focal ratio f/3
Cassegrain focal ratio: f/8
FOV: 7' diameter
Spot concentration 80% in 0.5", >90% in 1"
Material: Schott Zerodur

Mechanics
Mounting: Alt/Az
Tube: Serrurier
M1 cell: active M1 support with 18 axial and 12 radial levers
Bearings: hydraulic/rollers in azimuth/elevation
Drives: final direct drives with high-precision absolute encoders
Pointing accuracy: blind 5" or better, seeing-limited with AGU
Tracking accuracy: better than 0.2"/min
Guiding accuracy: seeing-limited
Instruments stages: at two Nasmyth focii possible; FOV derotator

Telescope control

• Drive control via PROFI Bus, with the operations:
  -- Initialising
  -- Encoder absolute referencing
  -- Pointing (slewing)
  -- Tracking
  
• Star acquisition and guiding
  -- The fibre entrance is embedded in an inclined mirror reflecting the beam on a ST7 camera
  -- Guiding with a few percent of light from the target star
  -- Seeing limited
  

• Auxiliary tasks
  -- Focusing
  -- Hydraulic engine control
  -- FOV derotator control
  -- Sensors and limit switch read-out
  -- Mirror covers actuating
  -- Emergency action
  

The Telescope Control Software is a subsystem of the HRT control Software.