Optical design of the Southern African Large Telescope

Arek Swat; Darragh O'Donoghue; Jian Swiegers; Leon Nel; David A. H. Buckley

doi:10.1117/12.457963

4 February 2003 The optical design of the Southern African Large Telescope

Arek Swat, Darragh O'Donoghue, Jian Swiegers, Leon Nel, David A. H. Buckley

Proceedings Volume 4837, Large Ground-based Telescopes; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.457963
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2002, Waikoloa, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

SALT, although similar to the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET - the prototype for a fixed altitude optical analog of the Arecibo radio telescope), has some significant differences in the optical design. This paper gives an overall description of the SALT optics and a description of the analyses done in order to develop an optical error budget, which satisfies the overall requirements for total image quality. An optical prescription for SALT is presented, including an optical model of the telescope with a segmented primary mirror (PM) array. The design of the spherical aberration corrector (SAC) is summarised, with particular reference to the effects of non-axisymmetric distortion. The concepts for an atmospheric dispersion corrector (ADC), and guidance and focusing (GF) systems, are also discussed. Finally, the primary mirror alignment system (PMAS) concept is presented and the difficulty in controlling the Global Radius of Curvature (GRoC) discussed.

Citation Download Citation

Arek Swat, Darragh O'Donoghue, Jian Swiegers, Leon Nel, and David A. H. Buckley "The optical design of the Southern African Large Telescope", Proc. SPIE 4837, Large Ground-based Telescopes, (4 February 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.457963

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available