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VERY LARGE TELESCOPE FORK STUDY

AMOS has studied the fork of an 8 m unit telescope for the European Southern Observatory. The Very Large Telescope is composed of 4 identical unit telescopes.

The aims of the study were:

• to provide a rigid interface (Eigen frequency as high as possible) between the base and the tube;
• to reduce the level of the altitude axis;
• to bring the total weight of the telescope unit to the minimum.

The AMOS study arrived at the following values:

• mass of the fork: 87 t (150 t less than a classical solution);
• first Eigen frequency at 9 Hz;
• level of the altitude axis: 6.7 m above the base level.

These characteristics were obtained with a double concentric circular azimuth track.

Overall fork dimensions:
Lenght: 24 m
Width: 8.1 m
Height (bearings included): 8.25 m

CUSTOMER : ESO (European Southern Observatory) - GERMANY, - CHILE

Creation & Hosting : REALITY MEDIA