Tracking subsystem of the SOFIA telescope

Hermann Bittner; Christoph Braeuninger; Andreas Dierks; Matthias Erdmann; Markus Erhard; Klaus Lattner; Juergen Schmolke

doi:10.1117/12.389114

20 June 2000 Tracking subsystem of the SOFIA telescope

Hermann Bittner, Christoph Braeuninger, Andreas Dierks, Matthias Erdmann, Markus Erhard, Klaus Lattner, Juergen Schmolke

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 4014, Airborne Telescope Systems; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.389114
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2000, Munich, Germany

Abstract

The Tracking Subsystem of the SOFIA telescope consists of three high performance imagers and a dedicated tracking control unit. There are two boresighted imagers for target acquisition and tracking, one with a wide (6 degrees) and one with a fine (70 arcmin) field-of-view, and one main- telescope-optics sharing imager with a narrow field-of-view (8 arcmin) for high performance tracking. From the recorded stellar images, tracking error signals are generated by the tracker controller. The tracker controller has several features to support various tracking schemes such as tracking the telescope as an inertial platform, on- axis/offset tracking, and limb tracking. The tracker has three modes, i.e. positioning, tracking and `override'. Special features are the handling of so-called areas-of- interest in the inertial reference frame and the external imager synchronization. The paper presents the design and functional/operational performance of the imagers and the tracking control unit.

Citation Download Citation

Hermann Bittner, Christoph Braeuninger, Andreas Dierks, Matthias Erdmann, Markus Erhard, Klaus Lattner, and Juergen Schmolke "Tracking subsystem of the SOFIA telescope", Proc. SPIE 4014, Airborne Telescope Systems, (20 June 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.389114

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