光学反射望远镜主、副镜安装调整不良引起的象差

一架先进的设计、精心加工的光学望远镜,在工厂或组装车间检查光学质量合格后,在观测地点安装调整后必须要经过检验。因为在安装调整中,如果光学部件(如主镜和副镜)的光轴有横向偏离、倾斜,或者相互间距有偏差,都会使星象质量变坏。以我台将要进口的2.4m反射望远镜为例,讨论了在主副镜的安装调整中若产生误差,给星象质量带来的影响,从而可作为检验和验收望远镜时的参考。     

光学反射望远镜主、副镜安装调整不良引起的象差

一架先进的设计、精心加工的光学望远镜，在工厂或组装车间检查光学质量合格后，在观测地点安装调整后必须要经过检验。因为在安装调整中，如果光学部件(如主镜和副镜)的光轴有横向偏离、倾斜，或者相互间距有偏差，都会使星象质量变坏。以我台将要进口的2．4m反射望远镜为例，讨论了在主副镜的安装调整中若产生误差，给星象质量带来的影响，从而可作为检验和验收望远镜时的参考。     

离轴扇形镜面非球面度的计算

我国天文学家提出了中国30m口径巨型望远镜(CFGT)建议。它的主镜是由17种不同类型的离轴非球面子镜呈圆环形排列拼接而成。考虑了这些子镜磨制过程中有关参数的计算方法，比较了不同的约束条件下的非球面度，给出了每一种非球面子镜在最佳约束条件下的最接近比较球面半径和最大非球面度，并绘制出了子镜镜面上每一点磨削量的三维图，可供将来子镜磨制作为参考。     

φ85厘米望远镜镜筒的机械设计

一架望远镜的质量不仅取决于其光学零件的质量，同时不取于整个机械结构的优劣。因此，机械设计在望远镜制造中占有极其翻天覆地的地位，对于一架现有望远镜的改装，机械设计的难度更大。本文介绍用于改 装双筒望远镜的φ85厘米反射望远镜镜筒的设计和结构分析。由于EM－1赤道的承载能力有限，镜筒设计中如何重量成为设计的关键问题。为此，镜筒的主要部位，诸如筒体和主镜室等均作过力学分析，选择其中最佳的方案。该镜筒将作为一个完整的镜筒安装在EM－1装置上，它主要用于光电测光工作，也可以作光谱工作。     

超轻量镜面系统的研制

空间望远镜的研制一直要求系统的轻量化,美国宇航局（NASA）最近研制的韦伯太空望远镜,其主镜系统面密度相对于哈勃空间望远镜已大幅减轻。在韦伯望远镜主镜系统的研制过程中,NASA开展了一系列关于超轻量镜面系统的验证计划,多家机构拿出多个方案参与竞标。本文选取几个比较典型的方案,介绍这些镜面系统的设计思想、结构、材料、加工以及相关测试结果,期望能对国内相关方面的工作提供参考。     

基于扇形子镜的12m光学红外望远镜拼接共相误差仿真分析

为满足国内对应用大型通用光学望远镜在光学红外波段进行天文观测的需求, 中国计划建设一架12 m大口径光学红外望远镜(12-meter large aperture optical-infrared telescope, LOT). LOT对于中国天文界具有极其重要的意义, 将会在近红外波段实现共相. LOT的主镜将采用子镜拼接的方案, 由72块扇形子镜拼接而成, 并且中央部分有一块直径4.5m的圆形镜. 分析了采用扇形子镜拼接方案下LOT的共相误差, 提供了详细的共相误差理论推导过程, 并对包括3种子镜面外误差在内的误差源进行深入的单独模拟和综合模拟. 在共相波长为1μm的条件下, 当服从正态分布的倾斜误差的均方根值小于0.016^\prime\prime或服从正态分布的活塞误差的均方根值小于42.5nm时, LOT的斯特列尔比大于0.8. 仿真结果对于采用共相拼接镜面主动光学的主镜在LOT中的应用具有重要意义.     

一个巨型望远镜方案

提出一个有特色的巨型望远镜(FGT)方案．其主镜口径为30米，主焦比为1．2，由1095块圆环形子镜构成．采用地平式装置．光学系统包括Nasmyth系统、折轴(Coude)系统和一个大视场系统．提出一个由4个镜面组成的新的Nasmyth系统，在约10′的视场范围内像斑小于爱里斑，达到衍射极限．比传统的Nasmyth系统的衍射极限视场大得多．可在这样的大视场内同时作好几个小区域的衍射极限的观测．当由Nasmyth系统转换到折轴系统和大视场系统时，采用主动光学技术改变子镜的面形、倾斜和平移，产生一个新的主镜面形，使折轴系统和大视场系统都能得到很好的像质．大视场系统的视场直径25′，场曲轻微，并有可能校正大气色散．给出了子镜面形和位置的公差，并讨论了望远镜的装置和结构,方案中的特色和创新对未来大望远镜的研制有普遍意义．     

大口径离轴非球面镜预应力环抛方法研究

提出了一种加工离轴非球面的预应力环抛方法,基于预应力加工方法的基本原理,利用环抛机来磨制离轴非球面.设计了一套专门的加载装置,将拼接镜面中具有不同离轴量的非球面子镜转化成曲率半径相同的球面子镜进行磨制,可以在同一台环抛机上进行抛光.利用这种方法,花费连续40 h的时间,磨制了一块按照中国30 m极大口径望远镜(CFGT)主镜参数比例缩小的离轴抛物面,顶点曲率半径21.6 m,离轴量3.6 m,离轴口径为330 mm,最大非球面度为16μm.试验表明该方法效率高,适用于批量加工,特别是极大口径天文望远镜拼接主镜的大批量非球面子镜研制.     

施米特望远镜的作用

施米特望远镜是折反射望远镜的一种,即由透射改正镜和反射主镜组成。1930年,德国的施米特首先发明了这种望远镜,故叫做施米特望远镜。它的主要优点是相对口径     

全球最大的双筒望远镜开光

3月6日,位于美国亚利桑那东南部格雷厄姆（Graham）山上的世界最大双简望远镜开光。这是一个新的里程碑,通过它人们可以看到比以前更远古的影像,比哈勃望远镜的图像还清晰十倍！耗资1亿2千万美元的“大双简望远镜”（Large Binocular Telescope,简写为LBT）,两个镜子的主镜均为8．4米,有效口径等同于一架11.8米的望远镜,分辨率则等同于22．8米的天文望远镜。望远镜终端所使用的全景照相机的CCD像素高达3600百万像素,再加上其聚光能力远超哈勃空间望远镜、分辨率更胜于夏威夷的十米口径凯克望远镜,为目前的世界之冠。     

关于摄谱仪中畸象系统的若干讨论

本文讨论了摄谱仪中若干畸象系统,它们的作用是缩放入射狭缝的象单在高或宽的方向的尺寸,这等效于在狭缝前、后单在子午面内或弧矢面(色散方向面)内改变光束的孔径角,也等效于准直光束单在子午面或弧矢面内缩放光束宽度,在讨论中指出了准直畸象系统优于非准直畸象系统。 在着重讨论和分析准直畸象系统的不同形式时,我们提出了棱镜系统,它具有许多优点,是最为可行的方案。     

Triaxial ellipsoid dimensions and poles of asteroids from AO observations at the Keck-II telescope

Five main belt asteroids, 2 Pallas, 129 Antigone, 409 Aspasia, 532 Herculina, and 704 Interamnia were imaged with the adaptive optics system on the 10 m Keck-II telescope in the near infrared on one night, August 16, 2006. The three axis dimensions and rotational poles were determined for Pallas, Antigone, Aspasia, and Interamnia, from their changing apparent sizes and shapes as measured with parametric blind deconvolution. The rotational pole found for Interamnia is much different from all previous work, including our own at Lick Observatory the previous month. Although images of Herculina were obtained at only two rotational phases, its rotation appears to be opposite to that predicted from the lightcurve inversion model of M. Kaasalainen, J. Torppa, and J. Piironen [2002. Icarus 159, 369-395]. A search for satellites was made in all of the asteroid images, with negative results, but three trailing stars around Herculina (200 km diameter), down to 8.9 magnitudes fainter and between 1 and 115 asteroid radii (100 to 11,500 km) from the asteroid, establishes an upper limit of 3.3 km for any object with the same albedo near Herculina.     

A fast tracking mirror for adaptive optics

A piezo driven tilt mirror was developed and built as one component of an image motion compensation system for a solar telescope. The bandwidth of the mirror with a diameter of 60 mm is about 1 kHz with negligible phase shift between input signal and mirror response up to 900 Hz. The tilt range is 1.6 mrad. Special care was taken to maintain the surface quality of the mirror to better than /15 after fixing it to the substrate.     

Triaxial ellipsoid dimensions and rotational poles of seven asteroids from Lick Observatory adaptive optics images, and of Ceres

Seven main belt asteroids, 2 Pallas, 3 Juno, 4 Vesta, 16 Psyche, 87 Sylvia, 324 Bamberga, and 707 Interamnia, were imaged with the adaptive optics system on the 3 m Shane telescope at Lick Observatory in the near infrared, and their triaxial ellipsoid dimensions and rotational poles have been determined with parametric blind deconvolution. In addition, the dimensions and pole for 1 Ceres are derived from resolved images at multiple epochs, even though it is an oblate spheroid.     

Wide-field Adaptive Optics correction using a single rotating laser guide star

The problem of providing Adaptive Optics (AO) correction over a wide field of view is one that can be alleviated by using multiple conjugate AO (MCAO), or a low-altitude Laser Guide Star (LGS) that is projected to an altitude below any high layer turbulence. A low-altitude LGS can only sense wavefront distortions induced by low-altitude turbulence, which is dominated by a strong boundary layer at the ground. Sensing only the wavefront from this layer provides an AO system with a more spatially invariant performance over the telescope field of view at the expense of overall correction. An alternative method for measuring a ground-layer biased wavefront using a single rotating LGS is presented together with a numerical analysis of the wide-field performance of an AO system utilizing such a LGS. System performance in H and K bands is predicted in terms of system Strehl ratio, which shows that uniform correction can be obtained over fields of view of 200 arcsec in diameter. The simulations also show that the on-axis performance of a LGS utilizing Rayleigh backscattered light will be improved.     

Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics with Two Deformable Mirrors – Requirements and Performance

In order to increase the corrected field of view of an adaptive optics (AO) system, several deformable mirrors (DM) have to be placed in the conjugate planes of the dominant turbulent layers (multi-conjugate adaptive optics,MCAO (Beckers, 1988)).The performance of MCAO systems depends on the quality of thewavefront sensing ofthe individual layers and on the number of corrected modes in eachindividual layer as in single layer AO systems. In addition, the increase in corrected field of view depends on the number of guide stars providing information about theturbulence over a sufficiently large area in each turbulent layer. In this article, we investigate these points and provide formulae for calculating the increased field of view with a new approach using the spatial correlation functions of the appliedpolynomials (e.g. Zernike). We also present a new scheme of measuring the individual wavefront distortion of each of the dominantlayers with a Shack-Hartmann-Curvature Sensor using gradientinformation as well as scintillation. An example for the performance of a two layer MCAO system is given for the 3.5-m telescope of the Calar Alto Observatory, Spain, using ameasured C_n ²-profile. The corrected field of view in K-band(2.2 m) can be as large as 3 arcmin with a Strehl ratio above 60%.     

A four lens camera design

A camera design with only four lens elements gives good imaging performance at a working focal ratio of f/4.4.     

On the existence of transverse relativistic aberrations in moving mirror

Relativistic aberration and Doppler effects on rotating mirrors have been claimed (Ragazzoni & Claudi, 1995) and later refuted (Hickson, Bhatia & Iovino, 1995). While an experimental confirmation of the absence of the Doppler effect has been carried out in 1974, a measurement of the absence of the aberration effect is missing. It is shown that analyzing published data on the LAGEOS pulse-return signature an experimental confirmation of the absence of the effect is obtained.     

Active Optics in LAMOST

Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) is one of the major national projects under construction in China. Active optics is one of the most important technologies for new large telescopes. It is used for correcting telescope errors generated by gravitational and thermal changes. Here, however, we use this technology to realize the configuration of LAMOST, -a task that cannot be done in the traditional way. A comprehensive and intensive research on the active optics used in LAMOST is also reported, including an open-loop control method and an auxiliary closed-loop control method. Another important development is in our pre-calibration method of open-loop control, which is with some new features: simultaneous calculation of the forces and displacements of force actuators and displacement actuators; the profile of mirror can be arbitrary; the mirror surface shape is not expressed by a fitting polynomial, but is derived from the mirror surface shape formula which is highly accurat