The SOFIA Telescope

Abstract

The SOFIA telescope as the heart of the observatory is a major technological challenge. I present an overview on the astro-nomical and scientific requirements for such a big airborne observatory and demonstrate the impact of these requirements on the layout of SOFIA, in particular on the telescope design as it is now. Selected components of the telescope will be de-scribed in their context and functionality. The current status of the telescope is presented.

6 pages, 7 figures, to appear in: Proceedings of SPIE: Airborne Telescope Systems, Munich, March 2000, Vol. 4014, paper with high resolution figures available at http://astro1.ws.ba.dlr.de/WEBPAGES/paper.htm

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