The New Solar Telescope (NST) is an advanced solar telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). It features a 1.6-m clear aperture with an off-axis Gregorian configuration. An open structure will be employed to improve the local seeing. The NST Telescope Control System (TCS) is a complex system, which provides powerful and robust control over the entire telescope system. At the same time, it needs to provide a simple and clear user interface to scientists and observers. We present an overview of the design and implementation of the TCS as a distributed system including its several subsystems such as the Telescope Pointing and Tracking Subsystem, Wavefront Sensing Subsystem etc. The communications between different subsystems are handled by the Internet Communication Engine (Ice) middleware.

Date Published: 27 June 2006
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 6274, Advanced Software and Control for Astronomy, 62741Y (27 June 2006); doi: 10.1117/12.672402

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6274:
Advanced Software and Control for Astronomy
Hilton Lewis; Alan Bridger, Editor(s)