The AMiBA Hexapod Telescope Mount

Abstract

AMiBA is the largest hexapod astronomical telescope in current operation. We present a description of this novel hexapod mount with its main mechanical components -- the support cone, universal joints, jack screws, and platform -- and outline the control system with the pointing model and the operating modes that are supported. The AMiBA hexapod mount performance is verified based on optical pointing tests and platform photogrammetry measurements. The photogrammetry results show that the deformations in the inner part of the platform are less than 120 micron rms. This is negligible for optical pointing corrections, radio alignment and radio phase errors for the currently operational 7-element compact configuration. The optical pointing error in azimuth and elevation is successively reduced by a series of corrections to about 0.4 arcmin rms which meets our goal for the 7-element target specifications.

Accepted for ApJ, 33 pages, 15 figures

References in corpus (8)

• The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect
• Mass and Hot Baryons in Massive Galaxy Clusters from Subaru Weak Lensing and AMiBA SZE Observations
• The Cosmic Background Imager
• The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy
• AMiBA: Broadband Heterodyne CMB Interferometry
• AMiBA: System Performance
• Tests of AMiBA Data Integrity
• AMiBA Observations, Data Analysis and Results for Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effects

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Mass and Hot Baryons in Massive Galaxy Clusters from Subaru Weak Lensing and AMiBA SZE Observations
• The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy
• AMiBA: Broadband Heterodyne CMB Interferometry
• AMiBA Wideband Analog Correlator
• AMiBA: scaling relations between the integrated Compton-y and X-ray derived temperature, mass, and luminosity
• AMiBA: System Performance
• Tests of AMiBA Data Integrity
• Constraining Intra-cluster Gas Models with AMiBA13
• AMiBA: Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect derived properties and scaling relations of massive galaxy clusters
• Accurate Telescope Mount Positioning with MEMS Accelerometers
• Contamination of the Central Sunyaev--Zel'dovich Decrements in AMiBA Galaxy Cluster Observations
• 1.2 Meter Shielded Cassegrain Antenna for Close-Packed Radio Interferometer
• Hexapod Design For All-Sky Sidereal Tracking
• Platform Deformation Phase Correction for the AMiBA-13 Co-planar Interferometer
• AMiBA: Cluster Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect Observations with the Expanded 13-Element Array