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OMI Telescopes
Optical Mechanics’ line of Classical Cassegrain (CC) and Ritchie-Chrétien (RC) robotic telescopes range in aperture from 12" (30.5cm) to 40" (100cm). These telescopes are turnkey systems capable of operating automatically while controlled locally or remotely. Each telescope includes all electronics and the computers required to operate and control the telescope loaded with Optical Mechanics’ control software.
Talon, our observatory control system, can control an entire observatory: telescope, filter wheel, CCD camera, dome, and more..The following tables describe the standard optical, mechanical, electronic, and software specifications of the OMI CC/RC Series robotic telescope systems.
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0.6-meter RC06 telescope at Seoul Science High School in Seoul Korea. The school purchased the system for general astronomy education and research utilizing photometry and other CCD imaging technologies.
0.6-meter CC06 telescope at Sierra Stars Observatory. An automated astronomy education and research facility remotely accessible via the Internet. |
Optics
| Specification |
Description |
| Configuration and Optical Quality |
Choice of Classical Cassegrain (F/10) or Ritchey Chretien (F/8). Custom optics configurations are also available. Call for details regarding other optical configurations
- OMI interferometer certification of optical quality
- OMI F/3 primary mirror and F/10 Cassegrain focus (CC Series) or F/8 Cassegrain focus (RC Series).
- RMS wave-front error -- less than or equal to 0.0712 λ at 633nm
- Peak to Valley wave-front error -- less than or equal to 0.25 λ at 633nm
- Strehl Ratio -- greater than or equal to 0.80
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| Mirror Materials |
All mirrors are made from zero expansion substrates, ZeroDur, Astro-Sital or equivalent. |
| Mirror Coating |
The standard coating for all Optical Mechanics mirrors is 96% enhanced aluminum. |
| Focusing |
Focus through axial motion of the secondary mirror with 10mm to 50mm of travel depending upon telescope size. A sensor establishes the home position of the focus within the depth of field of the optical system. The telescope control system automatically corrects focus variations as a result of temperature changes, based on previously obtained calibration data. |
| Maintenance |
Optical Mechanics provides documentation describing the proper maintenance of the optics and the procedures for their removal, cleaning, servicing and re-installation. |
| Telescope Structure |
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| Specification |
Description |
| Mount Type |
Equatorial fork mounted system built from anodized 6061T6-511 aluminum. |
| Drive System |
Right ascension and declination axes are driven by high-precision zero-lash drive systems |
| Optical Tube Assembly |
Open truss design. The primary mirror cell and head ring are built from black anodized 6061T6-511 aluminum. The six support trusses are manufactured from carbon fiber composites for near zero thermal expansion. |
| Slew Range |
The telescope points to any part of the sky down to 90 degrees ZD and track normally down to at least a ZD of 78 degrees. |
| Mirror Covers |
The primary mirror and secondary mirror covers are manually removable. Optional remotely controlled automatic mirror covers are also available. |
| Baffling |
The telescope is baffled such that there is no direct light at the focal plane with fully open enclosure. The baffles are coated with low reflective dark black paint or flocking paper with reflectivity of less than 2% independent from the angle of incidence. |
| Instrument Payload |
The instrumentation mounting flange is capable of supporting loads in excess of 20kg-50kg (based upon telescope size) at Cassegrain focus. Counterweight mounts are provided on the upper optical tube assembly to allow for proper balancing of the OTA. |
| Closed Loop Operation |
To optimize the telescope’s response to wind and other environmental noise, the telescope’s primary drive axes are closed loop servo actuated systems. The final tracking resolution will be <0.3 arc-seconds. |
| Acquisition, Pointing, Slewing, and Tracking |
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| Specification |
Description |
| Acquisition |
In manual mode, the telescope can be slewed at two rates (fine and coarse) during acquisition and two rates (fine and coarse) while tracking. All rates are a function of the maximum slew velocity (greater than 10 degrees per second), which can be defined by the end user. Accelerations are also definable, within the structural and electrical limits of the telescope. |
| Pointing |
Normal operation of the telescope requires a calibrated pointing model. The absolute RMS pointing accuracy is less than 5 arc-seconds. The relative pointing is less than 0.5 arc-seconds over a field of radius 1.5 degrees. Documented software for the automatic construction, maintenance and administration of the pointing model is included in the software package. |
| Slewing |
The maximum slew velocity is in excess of 10 degrees per second. |
| Tracking |
The telescope can track on an object anywhere in the sky in the operational range with a short period RMS tracking error of less than 0.0008 arc-second per second, provided all telescope calibrations are in place and active.
The telescope is capable of tracking at non-sidereal rates (a standard parameter of normal tracking) and will track any solar system object with a known set of orbital elements. The installed catalogs include many solar system objects. |
| Operating Environment |
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| Specification |
Description |
| Temperature Range |
The telescope is capable of full operation in temperatures ranging –10 to 30 degrees C. |
| Humidity |
When practical, all electronics are specified such that they are capable of full operation in 5-95% non-condensing relative humidity. Components are not capable of reliably surviving direct rainfall. |
| Wind Load |
The telescope is fully operational for unprotected wind loads up to 12 meters/second. At wind speeds greater than12 meters/second, a weather alert from the weather station shuts down the system after slewing the telescope to the stowed position. |
| Altitude |
The telescope is fully operational at altitudes less than 5000 meters MSL. |
| Structural Acceleration |
The telescope structure is designed to hold tolerance within a 3g loading environment. Therefore the telescope is capable of surviving structural accelerations of at least 0.1g horizontally and 0.05g vertically. |
| Instruments |
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| Specification |
Description |
| Cameras |
Optical Mechanics proprietary software Talon supports a wide variety of CCD cameras from Finger Lakes Instruments and Apogee and is easily extended to accommodate guide cameras and other astronomical instrumentation.
Interfacing to the primary CCD, autoguider camera and other instrumentation is accomplished via a “direct” device driver. This driver is ‘C’ level computer code that communicates directly with the camera and/or its support software thru the Talon CCD camera API. Currently, drivers exist for Finger Lakes Instrumentation cameras and for Apogee ‘AP’ series, ISA bus, cameras. Creation of a direct driver for any camera equipment to be used requires clear and detailed documentation for interfacing to the specific equipment. |
| Filter Wheels |
Standard and custom filter wheels with 2" (50mm) or 3" (75mm) UBVRI and RGB filter sets are available with automatic control and positioning fully integrated in Talon. |
| Autoguider |
Optional. Please contact Optical Mechanics for a custom quotation. |
| Weather Station and GPS Receiver |
Each telescope system includes a weather station and GPS receiver as part of the control systems to monitor and react to weather conditions such as temperature, humidity, wind, and rain and to maintain accurate system time. |
| Control and Software Systems |
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The OMI CC/RC Series Telescopes incorporate the industry's most advanced electronic and software observatory control system. Talon, our observatory control and astronomical analysis system, has been continually developed and enhanced for the past several years. The drive control system includes very high-resolution incremental encoders, limit switches, and home switches on the RA and DEC axes. The blind pointing accuracy of the telescopes is better than +/- 15 arc seconds.
The focusing mechanism moves the secondary mirror very precisely with a stepper motor and provides a large amount of back focus.
OMICC/RC Series telescopes are set up to control and interact with many other devices including various CCD cameras, position encoders on domes, TTL-level roof or shutter actuators, weather stations, security systems, and so on.
The software for Talon is installed on an embedded computer with a high-speed Pentium processor. The operating system is Linux with an X-Window Graphical User Interface. The computer is provided as an integral part of the control system. Talon software and documentation are supplied with each telescope system.
The following tables describe the functions and features of Talon.
| General Observatory Control System Features |
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| Specification |
Description |
| Operational Modes |
Talon defines operational modes for local users, administrative users, remote users who may schedule observations, and remote users who may directly control the telescope. The software defines these operational modes by way of configurable user permission settings and user classes, with special consideration given to the Local User, who always has preemptive authority to control the telescope. |
| Software Principle |
Talon is designed to run on Linux systems. Talon is written primarily in classic ‘C’. Some minor components are in Perl and csh script. All interfaces are accessible and documented as part of the source code maintenance discipline.
Basic Internet security is addressed by one or more methods, including simple challenge-response techniques. SSL support may be considered in some contexts. |
| Safety and Security |
Talon supports and enforces many safety features, including the use of acoustic warning signals, strongly enforced motion limits, and software-level all-stop commands. Status indicators are color coded for quick identification of systems operating outside of margins of safety for equipment or personnel. Software emergency stops are included with Talon and hardware emergency stop buttons and switches are included with the telescope. Custom fitted emergency stops can also be adapted for the observatory dome or enclosure. Motor detent torque brakes all axes when the telescope is not powered. The mechanical construction of the telescope also features additional safety features that work independently of the software.
Talon supports monitoring signals from a UPS unit that external power has failed, allowing for a controlled shutdown of all systems. Talon can then reinitialize all systems on subsequent power restart. |
| Computers and Controllers |
Minimum 800Mhz control computer, 256Mb RAM, 20Gb hard drive, Linux operating system, monitor, keyboard and three (3) CSIMC motion controller boards. |
| System Interfaces |
The telescope will be interfaced to the pier via several threaded J-style cement anchoring bolts. Prior to pier construction, Optical Mechanics will provide the observatory’s mechanical contractor with several detailed drawings and the associated hardware to be cast into the cement of the pier. This will provide the mechanical foundation to which the telescope will be attached.
Talon currently has the ability to interface to the dome driving hardware via TTL logic inputs and outputs. Currently the control system requires one line for clockwise and counterclockwise rotation, shutter open and close, azimuth home and end of travel limit switches on the shutter. Also required is one balanced or single ended incremental encoder to relate azimuth position of the dome.
Aside from the necessary HVAC to control dome seeing, Optical Mechanics telescopes require no additional heating or cooling devices.
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| Talon Observatory Control System Architecture |
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Talon is an integrated solution incorporating the Observatory Control System (OCS), Telescope Control System (TCS), Instrument Control System (ICS), Dome Control System (DCS) and Environment Control System (ECS), all within the same software suite and user interface domain.
| Specification |
Description |
| Observatory Control System (OCS) |
The Observatory Control System of Talon consists primarily of Xobs, the Linux X-Windows based observatory control program. This program calls upon and coordinates much of the interrelated portions of the Talon architecture, and forms the primary control panel for the telescope, dome, and peripheral systems when used locally.
Logging of critical system functions is performed by Talon for diagnostic and technical review purposes. This information chronicles the operation of the observatory subsystems at a component and driver level. |
| Telescope Control System (TCS) |
The telescope control software of Talon supports the controlled, properly accelerated and damped slewing of the telescope to target (manually or automatically) and subsequent tracking of the target. Tracking is supported by a pointing mesh (calibration) that is created by preparing a survey of the sky and performing precise WCS solutions at each of these sampled locations. The encoder-to-actual error is recorded for each position and is then used as interpolation points for any subsequent pointing operation. This results in a very good and very repeatable pointing accuracy. |
| Instrument Control System (ICS) |
The Instrument Control System controls the primary CCD camera, filter wheel, guide camera and focus mechanism.
Access to the controls for the Instrument Control System is through Xobs as implemented by Talon. Locally, images captured by the system may be viewed using Camera, a comprehensive CCD camera controller, image viewer, and analysis tool.
Both standard and H-compressed FITS files are supported. All relevant FITS fields are noted for each exposure, including location, time, exposure, image scale, object, and WCS solution, among others. |
| Dome Control System (DCS) |
Documentation for interface and configuration options to the dome enclosure are provided with Talon. The control system for the dome is governed by a CSIMC controller, which runs a script that handles basic dome operational commands. These CSIMC functions can be easily adapted to control nearly any type of switch interface to a dome control system.
The Dome Control Software handles all aspects of the dome function including rotation, shutter open/close, and rotation to shutter power. Optical Mechanics has adapted Talon for use with domes from a variety of manufacturers. |
| Environmental Control System (ECS) |
Weather station monitors for barometric pressure, temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind speed and direction are standard in Talon. The Davis Instruments EZ Mount Weather Monitor II or equivalent is provided. |
| Direct Internet Control System |
Users with appropriate privileges can request direct control sessions and are entered into the scheduler as fixed blocks of time. The user for whom the direct control session has become active is allowed to sign into the system for remote control at any time during this session block. As with any observation, the system will prohibit the use of the telescope equipment during unfavorable weather conditions. Administrators may override a direct session, in the same way that they might override a scheduled request. |
| Pricing |
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Classical Cassegrain
Telescope Base Prices
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| Telescope System |
Price |
| OMI CC03.7 - 36.8cm |
$165,000 |
| OMI CC04 - 40cm |
$185,000 |
| OMI CC05 - 50cm |
$225,000 |
| OMI CC06 - 60cm |
$265,000 |
| OMI CC08 - 80cm |
$320,000 |
| OMI CC10 - 100cm |
$460,000 |
| Additional sizes and configurations available |
Call for quotation |
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Call us for the latest pricing of our Classical Cassegrain and Ritchey-Chretien Telescopes. Talon software for telescope control and data analysis are included. Classical Cassegrain systems are F/10 and Ritchey-Chretien are F/8. A weather station and GPS unit are included. For other custom optics requirements, please contact us.
Cameras, auxiliary telescopes, autoguiders and other accessories are available upon request.
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Shipping, Installation and Training
Shipping, Installation and Basic Training depend upon final destination location and size of telescope. Prices typically vary from $7,500 to $20,000.
Delivery
Delivery of the telescope is 4-9 months after notification of the purchase contract and receipt of initial payment.
Reliability and Maintenance
The telescope systems are extremely robust designed for extended remote operation with many built in safety features. The local structure must be heavily grounded in the event that there is a lightning storm in the area. Maintenance required for the telescope is normally minimal. On hand spare parts are not necessary, but available for additional charge from Optical Mechanics if requested. The mirrors on the telescopes need to be cleaned and resurfaced occasionally. The cleaning period depends on the local conditions (dust, salt, moisture and so on) where the observatory is installed. The mirrors may need resurfacing every two to five years; again the frequency depends on local conditions.
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University of Iowa’s Rigel telescope |
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