Design and upgrades for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescope's roll-off enclosure

R. French Leger; Dan Long; Mark A. Klaene

doi:10.1117/12.457907

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4 February 2003 Design and upgrades for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescope's roll-off enclosure

R. French Leger, Dan Long, Mark A. Klaene

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Proceedings Volume 4837, Large Ground-based Telescopes; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.457907
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2002, Waikoloa, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

The SDSS telescope is housed, when not in use, in a roll-off enclosure. This enclosure rolls away from the telescope a distance of 60 feet, leaving the telescope fully exposed for operations. Design considerations for wind and solar loading, thermal venting, conditioning and stability are reviewed. Originally, the enclosure had been constructed to minimize its surface area obstruction to the telescopes field of view. This design feature, however, offered little room to perform engineering tasks during non-operational time. An upgrade to the structure, in the form of raising the roof, was instituted. This improvement greatly enhanced the engineering and testing functions performed on the telescope, thereby increasing operational efficiency and the time allotted to engineering tasks. Problems maintaining and associated with weather sealing, lightning protection, truck wheel alignment, altitude effects on truck controllers and thermal conditioning are examined. Communication and electrical connections between stationary and moving elements of the enclosure are described. Two types of systems, to date, have been used - one a reel and the other a slider system. Advantages and disadvantages of both are examined from the perspective of four years experience.

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R. French Leger, Dan Long, and Mark A. Klaene "Design and upgrades for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescope's roll-off enclosure", Proc. SPIE 4837, Large Ground-based Telescopes, (4 February 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.457907

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