Design of a telescope pointing and tracking subsystem for the Big Bear Solar Observatory New Solar Telescope

摘要

The New Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory will use a distributed system to control the telescope, dome, adaptive optics, thermal environment and instrumentation. The Telescope Pointing and Tracking Subsystem has the tasks of controlling the telescope dome and acting as a wrapper for the telescope mount software (provided by the mount manufacturer) and adding the specific control features needed for a large solar telescope. These include features for offset pointing to specific regions on the solar disk, safety interlock systems for the primary mirror, and provision for the alignment of the relatively small dome opening with the telescope optical axis.