Smart instrument technologies to meet extreme instrument stabilityrequirements

摘要

The performance requirements for the next generation of ground-based instruments for optical and infrared astronomy on current telescopes and future ELTs are generating extreme requirements for stability, for instance to carry out precise radial velocity measurements, imaging and spectroscopy with high contrast, and diffraction-limited performance at a level of tens of milliarcsecond. As it is not always possible to make use of a gravity-invariant focal station, flexure must be accommodated while still minimising thermal loads for cryogenic instruments. Variable thermal loads are another source of dimensional changes. High stability will require the minimising of the effects of vibration sources, either from the telescope systems or mechanical coolers. All this must be done while maintaining mass budgets, an especial challenge for large, wide-field, multi-object spectrographs.