Hexapod-Telescope Totally Explained

Everything about Hexapod-telescope totally explained

Engineers of the company Vertex in collaboration with astronomers of the Astronomy Department

in Germany developed a concept for a revolutionary design of telescopes which is called the Hexapod-Telescope (HPT).
Instead of the classical mounting using two axles, the mirror is supported by six extendable struts (hexapod). This configuration allows moving the telescope in all six spatial degrees of freedom and also provides a strong structural integrity. As a result, the ratio of bearing pressure and its own weight is very high. Furthermore, the six-leg structure allows for a very precise positioning and repeatability. These advantages were the reason to choose such a concept, although as a telescope only two axes are needed and controlling hexapods is much more complex than conventional telescope mountings.
Lead by Prof. Rolf Chini, the HPT was thoroughly tested in Bochum. In 2006, it was moved to its new location, which is the Cerro Armazones in the Atacama desert in Chile. In collaboration with the Astronomy Department of the University in Antofagasta (Instituto de Astronomía de la Universidád Católica del Norte

), the AIRUB is erecting a new observatory there. A new control building was built for the HPT.
Together with the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy

, the AIRUB is developing a spectrograph called BESO

. It is a copy of the FEROS

spectrograph which is being successfully operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO

Literature

Theodor Schmidt-Kaler: The Hexapod Telescope: A New Way to Very Large Telescopes. In: Progress in Telescope and Instrumentation Technologies, ESO Conference and Workshop Proceedings, ESO Conference on Progress in Telescope and Instrumentation Technologies, ESO, Garching, 27-30 April 1992, Garching: European Southern Observatory (ESO), 1992, edited by Marie-Helene Ulrich, p.117

Rolf Chini: The Hexapod Telescope - A Never-ending Story. In: Reviews in Modern Astronomy 13 : New Astrophysical Horizons. Edited by Reinhard E. Schielicke, Astronomische Gesellschaft, 2000, p. 257

I. Steiner, W. Seifert, Walter, O. Stahl, R. Lemke, R. Chini, I. Appenzeller: BESO: a high-resolution spectrograph for the Hexapod-Telescope. In: Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy. Edited by I. S. McLean, M. Iye. Proceedings of the SPIE, 2006, Volume 6269, p. 91

T. Juerges: Entwurf und Realisierung einer Nachführungskorrektur für Teleskope mit mehr als zwei Bewegungsfreiheitsgraden. Diploma-Thesis, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, 2004Further Information

Get more info on 'Hexapod-telescope'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://hexapod-telescope.totallyexplained.com">Hexapod-Telescope Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.