Active sub-reflector research for a large radio telescope

摘要

This paper proposes an active sub-reflector suitable for large radio telescopes,which can compensate both of the deformation of the main reflector and sub-reflector position offsets.The mathematical formula of the main reflector deformation compensated by the sub-reflector is deduced based on Cassegrain and Gregory antenna structures.The position of the sub-reflector is adjustable to compensate for defocusing errors on high and low elevations,which are mainly caused by the deformation of the sub-reflector supporting legs.In this paper,the method of obtaining the optimum position of the sub-reflector from the aperture phase by the interferometric method is introduced.The actual measurement is verified on the Tianma 65 m radio telescope,which provides a new way to diagnose the position error of the sub-reflector.