project Robust Prototyping Telescope

Universities, institutes and other observatories are also designing and building instrument prototypes that need to be tested on an actual telescope. The issue is to find a robust telescopes able to carry voluminous and heavy equipment on a sturdy mount to test those instruments on celestial or earth orbit objects.

AMOS designed a telescope for that purpose: The RPT-080, an 80cm telescope with a robust mout able to embark 200kg of equipment on its Nasmyth platform. It exists in various configuration with one or two Nasmyth and the ability to have a heavy equipment (like a laser guide star) co-aligned with the optical tube (see picture below). The large platforms allow for co-locating a small electronic cabinet under the instrument prototype.

This telescope can be used for astronomy observations, sky surveys, space situational awareness (SSA), satellite tracking, optical communications, Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), satellite laser ranging, etc.

The telescope charateristics are:

• Ritchey-Chrétien optical configuration
  • Other variants possible
• Optical quality: 35 nm RMS – SFE
• Nasmyth focus, with heavy-duty platform
  • Up to 200kg payload
  • One or two Nasmyth
  • Co-aligned side-telescope possible
• Automated M2 focusing mechanism
• High-precision pointing and tracking
• Large Azimuth and elevation cable wraps
• Optional Adaptive optics

For more information on RPT-080, please contact us.