Design and Cryogenic Performance of a Hexapod Platform for a Large Ground-based Wide Field Survey Telescope

The thermal gradient is an important factor that causes degradation to the image quality of telescopes. In order to ensure the accurate alignment of the primary focus unit and the primary mirror, the hexapod platform(as a corrector) is investigated in this paper. First, a ground-based telescope with 2.5 m aperture and 3.5 deg field of view is described. The telescope is under construction, and it is expected to be finished in 2023. Second, the hexapod platform with flexure hinges utilized to adjust the primary focus unit is proposed, which is applied as a corrector.Then, the inverse kinematics of the platform is established and an open-loop control system is built based on it.Finally, the cryogenic performance test for the hexapod platform is performed. The experimental results show that the resolution and repeatability of the translation for the hexapod platform can be achieved at the micrometer level.The resolution and repeatability of the rotation can be achieved at the arc-second level. Therefore, the cryogenic performance of the hexapod platform can meet the optical imaging requirements of the wide-field ground-based telescope. The kinematic analysis and cryogenic performance tests in the paper provide a technical reference for the precise alignment of the primary focus unit and the primary mirror, which can improve the imaging quality of the telescope.

Disturbance Observer-based Pointing Control of Leighton Chajnantor Telescope

Leighton Chajnantor Telescope(LCT), i.e., the former Caltech Submillimeter Observatory telescope, will be refurbished at the new site in Chajnantor Plateau, Chile in 2023. The environment of LCT will change significantly after its relocation, and the telescope will be exposed to large wind disturbances directly because its enclosure will be completely open during observation. The wind disturbance is expected to be a challenge for LCT's pointing control since the existing control method cannot reject this disturbance very well. Therefore, it is very necessary to develop a new pointing control method with good capability of disturbance rejection. In this research, a disturbance observer—based composite position controller(DOB-CPC) is designed, in which an H∞feedback controller is employed to compress the disturbance, and a feedforward linear quadratic regulator is employed to compensate the disturbance precisely based on the estimated disturbance signal. Moreover, a controller switching policy is adopted, which applies the proportional controller to the transient process to achieve a quick response and applies the DOB-CPC to the steady state to achieve a small position error. Numerical experiments are conducted to verify the good performance of the proposed pointing controller(i.e., DOB-CPC) for rejecting the disturbance acting on LCT.

A novel hexapod and its prototype for secondary mirror alignment in telescopes

This paper presents a novel hexapod as the adjustment mechanism for a telescope to actively align its secondary mirror. The special hexapod provides six degrees of freedom（6-DOFs） with decoupled translation and rotation. The decoupled kinematic motions are analyzed and commented on as the alignment mechanism of a secondary mirror from an optical alignment point of view. In terms of performance of the adjustment generally required by the secondary mirror in a telescope, we developed a prototype that uses a novel hexapod design with linear micro-displacement actuators. Especially, in order to achieve high precision, flexures were used to build joints for the hexapod to minimize frictions and eliminate backlashes. Based on the specific configuration and dimension of the prototype hexapod,an analytical model of the reachable workspace was built with the constraints defined by limited rotation angles of the flexure-based joints. We used a laser tracker to verify that the hexapod can reach a spherical translation workspace of φ6 mm and a rotation workspace of±1°. The translational repeatability was tested to be around half a μm by laser displacement sensors. In addition, we also measured the axial and lateral stiffnesses of the hexapod to be around 5500 N mm-^1 and 1750 N mm^-1, respectively. The kinematic analyses and convincing test results jointly encourage implementing the novel hexapod design with decoupled translation and rotation as a favorable alignment mechanism for secondary mirrors in astronomical telescopes.

Research on scheduling of robotic transient survey for Antarctic Survey Telescopes(AST3)

Antarctic Survey Telescopes（AST3） are designed to be fully robotic telescopes at Dome A,Antarctica,which aim for highly efficient time-domain sky surveys as well as rapid response to special transient events（e.g.,gamma-ray bursts,near-Earth asteroids,supernovae,etc.）.Unlike traditional observations,a well-designed real-time survey scheduler is needed in order to implement an automatic survey in a very efficient,reliable and flexible way for the unattended telescopes.We present a study of the survey strategy for AST3 and implementation of its survey scheduler,which is also useful for other survey projects.

The estimate of sensitivity for large infrared telescopes based on measured sky brightness and atmospheric extinction

In order to evaluate the ground-based infrared telescope sensitivity affected by the noise from the atmosphere,instruments and detectors,we construct a sensitivity model that can calculate limiting magnitudes and signal-to-noise ratio(S/N).The model is tested with tentative measurements of M’-band sky brightness and atmospheric extinction obtained at the Ali and Daocheng sites.We find that the noise caused by an excellent scientific detector and instruments at-135℃can be ignored compared to the M’-band sky background noise.Thus,when S/N=3 and total exposure time is 1 second for 10 m telescopes,the magnitude limited by the atmosphere is 13.01^(m)at Ali and 12.96^(m)at Daocheng.Even under lessthan-ideal circumstances,i.e.,the readout noise of a deep cryogenic detector is less than 200 e-and the instruments are cooled to below-87.2℃,the above magnitudes decrease by 0.056^(m)at most.Therefore,according to observational requirements with a large telescope in a given infrared band,astronomers can use this sensitivity model as a tool for guiding site surveys,detector selection and instrumental thermal-control.

Improving the Angular Resolution of Coded-Mask Telescopes by Direct Demodulation

We develop a new procedure to improve the angular resolution of coded-mask telescopes by the Direct Demodulation Method （DDM）. DDM has been applied to both real and simulated data of INTEGRAL/IBIS. The angular resolution of IBIS/ISGRI has been improved from about 13＇ to 2＇.

A general observatory control software framework design for existing small and mid-size telescopes

A general framework for observatory control software would help to improve the efficiency of observation and operation of telescopes, and would also be advantageous for remote and joint observations. We describe a general framework for observatory control software, which considers principles of flexibility and inheritance to meet the expectations from observers and technical personnel. This framework includes observation scheduling, device control and data storage. The design is based on a finite state machine that controls the whole process.

Full-disk synoptic observations of the chromosphere using Hα telescope at the Kodaikanal Observatory

This paper reports on the installation and observations of a new solar telescope installed on 2014 October 7 at the Kodaikanal Observatory. The telescope is a refractive type equipped with a tunable Lyot Hα filter. A CCD camera with size 2k ×2k acquires images of the Sun and has a pixel size of 1.21″ pixel^-1 and a full field-of-view of 41＇. The telescope is equipped with a guiding system which keeps the image of the Sun within a few pixels throughout the observations. The FWHM of the Lyot filter is 0.4A and the filter is motorized, capable of scanning the Hα line profile at a smaller step size of 0.01 A. Partial-disk imaging covering about 10＇ is also possible with the help of a relay lens kept in front of the CCD camera. In this paper, we report the detailed specifications of the telescope, filter unit, the installation, observations and the procedures we have followed to calibrate and align the data. We also present preliminary results with this new full-disk telescope.

Rapid instrument exchanging system for the Cassegrain focus of the Lijiang 2.4-m Telescope

As a facility used for astronomical research, the Lijiang 2.4-m telescope of Yunnan Astronomical Observatories, requires the ability to change one auxiliary instrument with another in as short a time as possible. This arises from the need to quickly respond to scientific programs （e.g. transient observation, time domain studies） and changes in observation conditions （e.g. seeing and weather conditions）. In this paper, we describe the design, construction and test of hardware and software in the rapid instrument exchange system （RIES） for the Cassegrain focal station of this telescope, which enables instruments to be quickly changed at night without much loss of observing time. Tests in the laboratory and at the telescope show that the image quality and pointing accuracy of RIES are satisfactory. With RIES, we observed the same Landolt standard stars almost at the same time with the Princeton Instruments VersArray 1300B Camera （PICCD） and the Yunnan Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera （YFOSC）, while both were mounted at the Cassegrain focus. A quasi-simultaneous comparison shows that the image quality of the optical system inside the YFOSC is comparable with that provided by the PICCD.

Acceleration feedback control (AFC) enhanced by disturbance observation and compensation (DOC) for high precision tracking in telescope systems

Abstract In this paper, a cascade acceleration feedback control （AFC） enhanced by a disturbance observa- tion and compensation （DOC） method is proposed to improve the tracking precision of telescope systems. Telescope systems usually suffer some uncertain disturbances, such as wind load, nonlinear friction and other unknown disturbances. To ensure tracking precision, an acceleration feedback loop which can in- crease the stiffness of such a system is introduced. Moreover, to further improve the tracking precision, we introduce the DOC method which can accurately estimate the disturbance and compensate it. Furthermore, the analysis of tracking accuracy used by this method is proposed. Finally, a few comparative experimental results show that the proposed control method has excellent performance for reducing the tracking error of a telescope system.

The photometric system of the One-meter Telescope at Weihai Observatory of Shandong University

The one-meter telescope at Weihai Observatory （WHO） of Shandong University is an f/8 Cassegrain telescope. Three sets of filters are installed in a dual layer filterwheel that use Johnson-Cousins UBVRI, Sloan Digital Sky Survey u′g′r′i′z′ and Stomgren uvby. The photometric system and the CCD camera are introduced, followed by detailed analysis of their performances, and determination of the relevant parameters, including gain, readout noise, dark current and linearity of the CCD cam- era. In addition, the parameters describing the site＇s astro-climate, including typical seeing, statistics on the number of clear nights and average sky brightness, based on data gathered from Sep. 2007 to Aug. 2013, are systematically studied and reported in this work. Photometric calibrations were done using Landolt standard star obser- vations spanning eight nights, which yielded transformation coefficients, photometric precision and system throughput. The limiting magnitudes are simulated using the derived calibration parameters and classic observation conditions at WHO.

Pulsar timing observations with Haoping Radio Telescope

We report pulsar timing observations carried out in L-band with NTSC’s 40-meter Haoping Radio Telescope(HRT),which was constructed in 2014.These observations were carried out using the pulsar machine we developed.Timing observations toward millisecond pulsar J0437–4715 obtain a timing residual(r.m.s.)of 397 ns in the time span of 284 days.Our observations successfully detected Crab pulsar’s glitch that happened on 2019 July 23.

VLBI observations with the Kunming 40-meter radio telescope

The Kunming 40-meter radio telescope is situated in the yard of the Yunnan Astronomical Observatory （Longitude： 102.8° East, Latitude： 25.0° North） and saw its first light in 2006 May. The Kunming station successfully joined the VLBI tracking of China＇s first lunar probe ＂Chang＇E-1＂ together with the other Chinese telescopes： the Beijing Miyun 50-meter radio telescope, Urumqi Nanshan 25-meter radio telescope, and Shanghai Sheshan 25-meter radio telescope, and received the downlinked scientific data together with the Miyun station from October of 2007 to March of 2009. We give an introduction to the new Chinese VLBI facility and investigate its potential applications. Due to its location, the Kunming station can significantly improve the u - v coverage of the European VLBI Network （EVN）, in particular, in long baseline observations. We also report the results of the first EVN fringe-test experiment of N09SX1 with the Kunming station. The first fringes in the European telescopes were successfully detected at 2.3 GHz with the ftp-transferred data on 2009 June 17. From scheduling the observations to performing the post correlations, the Kunming station shows its good compatibility to work with the EVN. The imaging result of the extended source 1156＋295 further demonstrates that the Kunming station greatly enhances the EVN performance.

New vacuum solar telescope and observations with high resolution

The New Vacuum Solar Telescope （NVST） is a one meter vacuum solar telescope that aims to observe fine structures on the Sun. The main goals of NVST are high resolution imaging and spectral observations, including measurements of the solar magnetic field. NVST is the primary ground-based facility used by the Chinese solar research community in this solar cycle. It is located by Fuxian Lake in southwest China, where the seeing is good enough to perform high resolution observations. We first introduce the general conditions at the Fuxian Solar Observatory and the primary science cases of NVST. Then, the basic structures of this telescope and instruments are described in detail. Finally, some typical high resolution data of the solar photosphere and chromosphere are also shown.

The photometric system of the Tsinghua-NAOC 80-cm telescope at NAOC Xinglong Observatory

The Tsinghua-NAOC （National Astronomical Observatories of China） Telescope （hereafter, TNT） is an 80-cm Cassegrain reflecting telescope located at the Xinglong Observatory of NAOC, with the main scientific goals of monitoring various transients in the universe such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, novae, variable stars, and active galactic nuclei. We present a systematic test and analysis of the photometric performance of this telescope. Based on the calibration observations taken on 12 pho- tometric nights, spanning the period from 2004 to 2012, we derived an accurate trans- formation equation between the instrumental ubvri magnitudes and standard Johnson UBV and Cousins RI magnitudes. In particular, the color terms and the extinction coefficients of different passbands are well determined. With these data, we also ob- tained the limiting magnitudes and the photometric precision of TNT. It is worthwhile to point out that the sky background at the Xinglong Observatory became gradually worse over the period from 2005 to 2012 （e.g., -21.4 mag vs. ,-20.1 mag in the V band）.

A new multi-wavelength solar telescope: Optical and Near-infrared Solar Eruption Tracer (ONSET)

A new multi-wavelength solar telescope, the Optical and Near-infrared Solar Eruption Tracer （ONSET） of Nanjing University, has been constructed. It was fabricated at the Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics ＆ Technology, and the oper- ation is jointly administered with Yunnan Astronomical Observatory. ONSET is able to observe the Sun in three wavelength windows： He I 10830 A, Ha and white-light at 3600 A and 4250 A, which are selected in order to simultaneously record the dynam- ics of the corona, chromosphere and photosphere respectively. Full-disk or partial-disk solar images with a field of 10~ at three wavelengths can be obtained nearly simultane- ously. It is designed to trace solar eruptions with high spatial and temporal resolutions. This telescope was installed at a new solar observing site near Fuxian Lake in Yunnan Province, southwest China. The site is located at E102N24, with an altitude of 1722 m. The seeing is stable and has high quality. We give a brief description of the scientific objectives and the basic structure of ONSET. Some preliminary results are also pre- sented.

Optical system research of multi-object fiber spectroscopic survey telescope

In the first part of this paper,four different Cassegrain optical systems with their correctors are designed and studied for multi-object fiber slit spectroscopic survey.The aperture in 6.5 m and field of view 3°are taken for these optical systems.Assuming observation wavelength range is 0.365-0.95μm,the maximum zenith distance for observing is 60°,the maximum diameter of these lenses is 1.66 m,the altitude of the telescope site is 2500 m,two correctors are composed of 4-piece lenses and the other two are 5-piece lenses.The results obtained are:f-ratio about 3.7,the image quality for all four systems with EE80D≤0.60″,the linear diameter of the focal surface is about 1.2 m and 11 000 fibers can be set on it.Considering the limit of size of fused silica and optical glass,the maximum diameter for lens is about 1.7 m.Such a 6.5 m telescope is about the largest one if using the above correctors.Considering the multiobject spectroscopic survey is greatly important,we also studied some telescope optical systems having their aperture near or larger than 10 m used for the multi-object fiber spectroscopic survey.Such ideas are introduced in the last section of this paper.

Preliminary numerical simulation of mirror seeing for the Chinese Future Giant Telescope

Mirror seeing will be one of the key factors influencing image quality of an extremely large ground-based optical telescope （ELT）. Computational fluid dynamics （CFD） can be used to estimate the mirror seeing and the effects of ventilation. In this paper, we present a simplified approach to simulation of mirror seeing for the Chinese Future Giant Telescope （CFGT, 30 m in diameter） with the CFD software ANSYS Icepak. We get the FWHM of the image and the distribution of refractive index structure function （CN2） above the mirror. We demonstrate that thermal control and ventilation are effective ways to improve the image quality. Our simulation results agree with those of other authors for the ELT. To reduce the mirror seeing to a level of 0.5＂, the suggested temperature excess of the primary mirror above the ambient air for thermal control of the CFGT is 0 - 2 K according to the present results of weakly forced convection. The limitations of the method are also discussed.

Simulation method of Wolter type Ⅰ grazing incidence telescope imaging of an X-ray region

This paper presents a method for simulating Wolter type Ⅰ grazing incidence telescope imaging of an X-ray region. The imaging quality of a soft X-ray telescope is mainly affected by geometric aberrations,surface scatter and alignment errors. Using a Legendre-Fourier polynomial to fit the figure errors in the cylindrical coordinate system, the geometry of the mirror barrel with the figure errors can be modeled by the User Defined Object in ZEMAX. Based on the Harvey-Shack surface scatter theory, surface scatter is achieved by the Bidirectional Scatter Distribution Function(BSDF) scattering model. The alignment errors are calculated by a combination of experiment and simulation according to the shape of the spot resulting from the finite distance imaging experiment. By combining these factors that affect image quality,the telescope imaging of an infinity point is simulated by ZEMAX. According to the simulation results, the angular resolution of the telescope is calculated to be less than or equal to 1.86′ at a wavelength of 1.33 nm.The simulation method improves the ability of ZEMAX to simulate grazing incidence telescope imaging.This is of great significance for the research and manufacture of X-ray grazing incidence telescopes.

Data preprocessing and preliminary results of the Moon-based Ultraviolet Telescope on the CE-3 lander

The Moon-based Ultraviolet Telescope （MUVT） is one of the payloads on the Chang＇e-3 （CE-3） lunar lander. Because of the advantages of having no at- mospheric disturbances and the slow rotation of the Moon, we can make long-term continuous observations of a series of important celestial objects in the near ultra- violet band （245-340 nm）, and perform a sky survey of selected areas, which can- not be completed on Earth. We can find characteristic changes in celestial brightness with time by analyzing image data from the MUVT, and deduce the radiation mech- anism and physical properties of these celestial objects after comparing with a phys- ical model. In order to explain the scientific purposes of MUVT, this article analyzes the preprocessing of MUVT image data and makes a preliminary evaluation of data quality. The results demonstrate that the methods used for data collection and prepro- cessing are effective, and the Level 2A and 2B image data satisfy the requirements of follow-up scientific researches.