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Proceedings Paper

Design and implementation of coating hardware for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope wide-field corrector
Author(s): John Good; Hanshin Lee; Gary J. Hill; Brian Vattiat; David Perry; Herman Kriel; Richard Savage
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Paper Abstract

A major upgrade of the HET is in progress that will substantially increase the pupil size to 10 meters and the field of view to 22 arc-minutes by replacing the spherical aberration corrector. The new Wide Field Corrector is a 4-element assembly weighing 750kg and measuring 1.34 meters diameter by 2.1 meter in length. Special fixtures were required in order to support the mirrors of the Wide-Field Corrector and adapt them to the coaters chamber, during the vacuum coating process. For the 1 meter-class mirrors, the only suitable support interface was located on a 80mm wide cylindrical surface on the periphery of each mirror. The vacuum compatible system had to support the mirrors with the surface facing downward, and accommodate thermal ranges from ambient to 100C without inducing stresses in the substrate. The fixture also had to accommodate washing, as well as support of witness samples during testing and production runs, and provide masking for alignment fixtures in the center apertures of each mirror. Design principles, materials, implementation details, as well as lessons learned are covered*.

Paper Details

Date Published: 22 July 2014
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 9145, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes V, 91454C (22 July 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2057192
Show Author Affiliations
John Good, McDonald Observatory, The Univ. of Texas at Austin (United States)
Hanshin Lee, McDonald Observatory, The Univ. of Texas at Austin (United States)
Gary J. Hill, McDonald Observatory, The Univ. of Texas at Austin (United States)
Brian Vattiat, McDonald Observatory, The Univ. of Texas at Austin (United States)
David Perry, McDonald Observatory, The Univ. of Texas at Austin (United States)
Herman Kriel, McDonald Observatory, The Univ. of Texas at Austin (United States)
Richard Savage, McDonald Observatory, The Univ. of Texas at Austin (United States)


Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9145:
Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes V
Larry M. Stepp; Roberto Gilmozzi; Helen J. Hall, Editor(s)

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