The Weapons Lab/ARCA has developed a 1.5 meter telescope facility at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. Capabilities inlcude tracking celestial objects and solar illuminated artificial satellites. To eliminate scheduled maintenance and minimize 'down-time' due to equipment failure, only desktop computers and common optical sensors are used for pointing, acquisition, and tracking. WL/ARCA has developed in-house all of the software for the desktop computers, a tracker, and a control system for a fast steering mirror. This paper servers as a system overview which describes the telescope, the acquisiton cameras, the tracker, the steering mirror control system, the software, and examples of tracking performance. Briefly, a Macintosh IIx computer interfaces to the telescope controller, to two acquisition cameras mounted on the main telescope tube, and to an Atari ST computer which controls the tracker and steering mirror. (Fig. 1). Using available ephemeris, the Macintosh dynamically points the telescope until the desired target is seen in the acquisition cameras. Video from these cameras is digitized and displayed in a rectangle on the computer monitor. If the computer 'mouse' is 'clicked' on the displayed target, the software modifies the ephemeris so that the target image moves to the center and illuminates the tracker. The Macintosh then accepts measurements from the Atari and holds the target to within a few arc-seconds of the bore site of the telescope. To achieve sub-microradian tracking, the Atari also sends correction signals at 300 Hz to the fast steering mirror controller which causes the mirror to reduce the remaining tracking errors.
Starfire optical range tracking system for the 1.5 meter telescope
Das optische Nachführsystem Starfire für ein 1,5 m-Teleskop für die Stern- und Satelliten-Beobachtung
Proceedings of SPIE, Acquisition, Tracking, and Pointing IV ; 1304 ; 75-81
1990
7 Seiten, 4 Bilder
Conference paper
English
GOPEX at the Starfire Optical Range
NTRS | 1993
|SAM, The Starfire Optical Range Atmospheric Monitor
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2009
|GOPEX at the Starfire Optical Range
NTIS | 1993
|Measuring Tilt and Focus for Sodium Beacon Adaptive Optics on the Starfire 3.5 Meter Telescope
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2008
|Advanced Photosensors for Laser Beacon Adaptive Optics on the Starfire Optical Range 3.5 m Telescope
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2009
|