The 3,6 m Indo-Belgian Devasthal Optical Telescope: the hydrostatic azimuth bearing

Jonathan de Ville; Maxime Piérard; Christian Bastin

doi:10.1117/12.925943

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17 September 2012 The 3,6 m Indo-Belgian Devasthal Optical Telescope: the hydrostatic azimuth bearing

Jonathan de Ville, Maxime Piérard, Christian Bastin

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Proceedings Volume 8444, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes IV; 84443Z (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.925943
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

AMOS SA has been awarded of the contract for the design, manufacturing, assembly, tests and on site installation (Devasthal, Nainital in central Himalayan region) of the 3.6 m Indo-Belgian Devasthal Optical Telescope (IDOT). The telescope has a Ritchey-Chrétien optical configuration with a Cassegrain focus equipped with one axial port and two side ports. The primary mirror is a meniscus active mirror. The mount is an Alt-Az type with for the azimuth axis a 5 m diameter hydrostatic track. This paper presents the solution adopted by AMOS to meet the specific requirements for the azimuth axis. The track is designed to be able to control the positioning of the telescope around the azimuth axis with an accuracy of 0.05 arc second for all tracking configurations. The challenge came from this tight accuracy with a mass in rotation weighting 125 tons. The azimuth track was mounted and tested in AMOS workshop; the tests and performances are also discussed.

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Jonathan de Ville, Maxime Piérard, and Christian Bastin "The 3,6 m Indo-Belgian Devasthal Optical Telescope: the hydrostatic azimuth bearing", Proc. SPIE 8444, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes IV, 84443Z (17 September 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.925943

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