Fiber-optic gyro location of dome azimuth

John W. Kuehne

doi:10.1117/1.JATIS.2.3.037001

9 September 2016 Fiber-optic gyro location of dome azimuth

John W. Kuehne

Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, Vol. 2, Issue 3, 037001 (September 2016). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.2.3.037001

Abstract

The 2.1-m Otto Struve Telescope, world’s second largest in 1939, today has modern motion control and superb tracking, yet the 19-m-diameter Art Deco dome has resisted many attempts to record its azimuth electronically. Demonstrated in January 2016, a small tactical-grade fiber-optic gyro located anywhere on the rotating structure, aided by a few fiducial points to zero gyro drift, adequately locates the azimuth. The cost of a gyro is practically independent of dome size, offering an economical solution for large domes that cannot be easily encoded with conventional systems. The 100-Hz sampling is capable of revealing anomalies in the rotation rate, valuable for preventive maintenance on any dome. I describe software methods and time series analysis to integrate angular velocity to dome azimuth; transformation of telescope hour angle and declination into required dome azimuth, using a formula that accounts for a cross-axis mount inside an offset dome; and test results.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

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John W. Kuehne "Fiber-optic gyro location of dome azimuth," Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 2(3), 037001 (9 September 2016). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.2.3.037001

Published: 9 September 2016

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KEYWORDS

Gyroscopes

Fiber optic gyroscopes

Telescopes

Domes

Fiber optics

Computer programming

Control systems

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