Hexapod-Telescope

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HPT dome and control building at the Cerro Armazones

Engineers of the company Vertex in collaboration with astronomers of the Astronomy Department (AIRUB) of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum 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).

[edit] 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