MOUNT FOR CONTINUOUSLY ORIENTING A COLLECTOR DISH IN A SYSTEM ADAPTED TO PERFORM BOTH DIURNAL AND SEASONAL SOLAR TRACKING

摘要

ABSTRACT OF THE D DISCLOSUREA mount for continuously orienting a collector dish re-lative to the sun in a system adapted to perform both diurnal andseasonal solar tracking. The mount is characterized by a rigid,angulated axle having a linear midportion supporting a collectordish, and oppositely extended end portions normally related to themidportion of the axle and received in spaced journals. Thelongitudinal axis of symmetry for said midportion of the axle iscoincident with a seasonal axis while the axes of the journals arecoincident with a diurnal axis paralleling the earth's polar axis.Drive means are provided for periodically displacing the axle aboutthe diurnal axis at a substantially constant rate, while otherdrive means are provided for periodically indexing the dish through1° about the seasonal axis, once during each of the earth's suc-cessive rotations about its polar axis, whereby the position ofthe dish relative to the axle is varied for accommodating seasonaltracking as changes in the angle of inclination of the polar axisoccurs.