Friday, October 16, 2009

Inside the Liverpool Telescope





















1-main 2mtr mirror 2-secondary reflecting mirror 3-4-5 cameras around the central tube underneath. The secondary mirror directs the light down the central tube to a variable angled mirror which can accurately line up with whatever camera they wish to use, these are all arranged underneath the telescope in a circle 360 degrees, all the cables hang vertically down supported by wires before being lead to the measuring/transmitting equipment, as the telescope tracks around it can turn 540 degrees without damaging the cables, it then needs to rewind, all clever stuff, all controlled remotely, when on line the complete telescope floats on 5 microns of hydraulic oil, and the main mirror floats on compressed air. There were too many different cameras for me to remember them all, a lot of white light ones though, a particular one had a optical cable nearly 25m/m in dia, it went to a big cabinet in the corner and with prisums the light was split in two with different colour filters red and blue.
Roy