8 April 2023 Effect of the reflector system thermal behavior on the pointing accuracy of large radio telescopes
Shanxiang Wei, Deqing Kong, Fangwei Jin, Bin Xiong, Cong Lei, Binlan Wang
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

The thermal behavior of the reflector system under solar radiation has great effects on the pointing accuracy of large radio telescopes. To estimate the dynamic pointing error of large radio telescopes caused by the thermal behavior of the reflector system under solar radiation, the nonuniform temperature field and the thermal deformation of the Wuqing 70 m radio telescope (WRT70) on three specific sunny days are first simulated by finite-element (FE) software. Then the pose variations of the reflector system are calculated equivalently based on the FE thermal-structural coupling analysis of the reflector system. Finally, the dynamic pointing errors of the WRT70 on three specific sunny days, caused by the thermal behavior of the reflector system, are estimated according to the beam deviation factor. The research results show that the rotations of the main reflector and the offsets of the subreflector on sunny days have great influences on the pointing error of large radio telescopes. In addition, the pointing error caused by the rotations of the main reflector and the pointing error caused by the offsets of the subreflector cancel each other out, but the pointing error caused by the rotations of the main reflector plays a dominant role. Furthermore, the effect of the thermal behavior of the reflector system on the pointing accuracy of large radio telescopes is less than the influence of the thermal behavior of the alidade. These findings could provide valuable references for the compensation of dynamic pointing errors of large radio telescopes.

© 2023 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
Shanxiang Wei, Deqing Kong, Fangwei Jin, Bin Xiong, Cong Lei, and Binlan Wang "Effect of the reflector system thermal behavior on the pointing accuracy of large radio telescopes," Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 9(2), 028002 (8 April 2023). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.9.2.028002
Received: 24 September 2022; Accepted: 20 March 2023; Published: 8 April 2023
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KEYWORDS
Reflectors

Radio telescopes

Error analysis

Solar radiation

Thermal deformation

Receivers

Solar radiation models

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