Possible designs for optical interferometric array unit telescopes

John Rogers; Donald M. A. Wilson; Christopher A. Haniff; David F. Buscher; John E. Baldwin; Robert N. Tubbs

doi:10.1117/12.459136

21 February 2003 Possible designs for optical interferometric array unit telescopes

John Rogers, Donald M. A. Wilson, Christopher A. Haniff, David F. Buscher, John E. Baldwin, Robert N. Tubbs

Proceedings Volume 4838, Interferometry for Optical Astronomy II; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.459136
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2002, Waikoloa, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

The next generation of optical interferometer arrays will require a large number of unit telescopes in the same manner as the VLA if meaningful scientific objectives are to be achieved. Studies based on the five element COAST array show that something like ten to fifteen telescopes are necessary. For such a project to be viable the unit telescopes must be designed from the outset for this task. The basic criteria are as follows: The wavefront quality and stability should be excellent, high optical throughput, autonomous automatic operation, couple efficiently into the beam transport and combination system, plus maintain acceptable unit cost. To achieve these goals a number of novel designs were considered and are described in this paper. Two of the most suitable designs and which had the least technological risk were studied in more detail by Telescope Technology Ltd. and are described in a separate paper.

Citation Download Citation

John Rogers, Donald M. A. Wilson, Christopher A. Haniff, David F. Buscher, John E. Baldwin, and Robert N. Tubbs "Possible designs for optical interferometric array unit telescopes", Proc. SPIE 4838, Interferometry for Optical Astronomy II, (21 February 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.459136

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