SC-2438 

Description

The SC-2438 telescope is a complete computer controlled research grade telescope. The mount is a horseshoe equatorial design with all roller drive on both axes. The optical design is based on a 24 inch f/3.1 full thickness fine annealed Pyrex parabolic primary mirror. A CCD camera is mounted at prime focus of the primary. A corrector mounted in front of the camera handles correction of the astigmatism and coma of the primary. The telescope is driven by a DriveScope drive system. The truss system uses carbon fiber tube members that have a zero coefficient of thermal expansion for constant focus over a wide temperature range.

Mount specifications:

• Type: Horseshoe equatorial
• Drive: All roller with 312:1 reduction on RA and 265:1 on Dec
• Motion: +/- 5.5 hours in RA and +90 to – 40 degrees in Dec
• Drive motors: microstepped 615 oz-in stepper motors running on 48 Volts
• Motion on the sky: 0.32 arc seconds in RA and 0.38 arc seconds in Dec
• Construction: All steel structural tubing
• Bearings: Sealed ball bearings
• Corrosion protection: Zinc electroplated and Powder coated
• Support: Three separate piers for the base frame.
• Polar alignment: Adjustment plates on each corner of the base frame

Truss members:

• Truss system: Eight 1.08 OD x 0.688 ID carbon/epoxy filament wound tubes
• UV protection coating: Flat black enamel

Camera support:

• Spider: Eight 1-inch by 0.020” thick spring stainless steel vanes
• Motion: +/- 5 degrees tip/tilt and +/- 1.5” z-axis
• Focus motion: 0.75” case hardened keyed shaft carried in two linear bearings
• Focus movement: +/- 1.5 inches at 0.0006” per motor step
• Focus motor: 30 oz-in 200 step stepper motor
• Camera mounting: Custom for each camera/corrector combination

Drive accuracy:

• Pointing (un-corrected): +/- 2 arc minutes
• Pointing corrected: +/- 0.5 arc minutes
• Unguided exposure time: 10 minutes

Field of View:

• Paracorr® corrector: 33 arc minutes (f/3.5)
• Custom corrector: Over 1 degree (f/3.5)