80cm Telescope on Hopfbuehl School from Werner Antritter

80cm Telescope from Werner Antritter in Villingen

In September 2002 we have installed the 80cm f/10 Cassegrain for Hopfbuehl Observatory. The telescope is located on top of the Hopfbuehl school in Villingen. It is a 80cm telescope with a Cassegrain focal ratio of f/10. The prime focus can be used with a 3-lens Wynne corrector at a focal ratio of f/3 on a corrected field diameter of 100mm.

The telescope can be fully remotely controlled (dome, telescope, mirror covers etc.). The measured pointing accuracy is 14 arc seconds RMS and the guiding accuracy is better than 1" RMS in 5 minutes. However this is only a first approach after 1/2 night of optimization and much better values can be expected soon.

Telescope without the covers of the friction drive installed

The picture shows the measured errors of a 30 Stars pointing file. After we made the pointing file, we detected that the focuser adapter was loose and not screwed correctly, thus probably influencing the pointing file. However where does a public observatory needs better pointing than 14 arc sec RMS so we left the pointing as it is this time. Maybe we have some time to get it better during our next visit.

Mechanic

We use a friction drive at this telescope. High resolution encoders are used to real-time controll the residual driving errors. All elements are FEM optimized.
The mount can calibrate itself automatically without pointing to any stars to an accuracy of 5 arc seconds by using reference marcs.

Software

We use our Autoslew-Software to controll the telescope. A pointing model is used to achieve the pointing accuracy. All functions can be controlled via a modified ACL protocoll.

Installation

GabelSchwebtAn_m.jpg (54561 Byte)
Fork Mount hanging on the cranel

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The tube is lifted through the dome

SunSet_m.jpg (37323 Byte)
sunset on the first evening of the telescope in the dome