Active flexure compensation software for the echellette spectrograph and imager on Keck II

Robert I. Kibrick; Joseph S. Miller; Jerry E. Nelson; Matthew V. Radovan; Andrew I. Sheinis; Brian M. Sutin

doi:10.1117/12.388396

16 June 2000 Active flexure compensation software for the echellette spectrograph and imager on Keck II

Robert I. Kibrick, Joseph S. Miller, Jerry E. Nelson, Matthew V. Radovan, Andrew I. Sheinis, Brian M. Sutin

Proceedings Volume 4009, Advanced Telescope and Instrumentation Control Software; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.388396
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2000, Munich, Germany

Abstract

All Cassegrain spectrographs suffer from gravitationally- induced flexure to some degree. While such flexure can be minimized via careful attention to mechanical design and fabrication, further performance improvements can be achieved if the spectrograph has been designed to minimize hysteresis and has active compensation for any residual flexure. The Echellette Spectrograph and Imager (ESI), built at UCO/Lick Observatory for use at Cassegrain focus on Keck II, compensates for such residual flexure via its collimator mirror. The collimator is driven by three actuators that provide control of collimator focus, tip, and tilt. The ESI control software utilizes a mathematical model of gravitationally-induced flexure to periodically compute and apply flexure corrections by commanding the corresponding tip and tilt motions to the collimator. In addition, the ESI control software provides an optional, manual, closed-loop method for adjusting the collimator position to compensate for any non-repeatable errors. Such errors may result from mechanical hysteresis or from thermally-induced structural deformations of the instrument and are thus not accounted for by the gravitational flexure model. This method relies on measuring the centroid position of fiducial spots within each echellete image. The collimator is adjusted so that the positions of these spots match those in a reference image. These spots are produced by a small round hole in the slit mask located near one end of the slit. We discuss the design and calibration of this flexure compensation system and report on its performance ont he telescope.

Citation Download Citation

Robert I. Kibrick, Joseph S. Miller, Jerry E. Nelson, Matthew V. Radovan, Andrew I. Sheinis, and Brian M. Sutin "Active flexure compensation software for the echellette spectrograph and imager on Keck II", Proc. SPIE 4009, Advanced Telescope and Instrumentation Control Software, (16 June 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.388396

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