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APM Professional Telescopes

APM Professional Telescopes

1m F/8 Ritchey Chrétien with dual Nasmyth Foci, Cape Town (South Africa)

Another large telescope for the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO). An 1m F/8 Alt-Az mounted Ritchey Chrétien for robotic use. It has dual Nasmyth Foci. The main telescopes used for research are located at the SAAO observing station (32°22.795’S 20°48,657’E) near Sutherland in the Northern Cape, a 4-hour drive from Cape Town.

Astronomy is our job

Observatory Telescopes

Big prime focus telescopes for private or public observatories including installation and full service.

Robotic / Remote

Robotic instruments for automatic imaging or telescopes for remote observation.

UVEX Spectrograph

Uvex Spectrograph

The UVEX is a “crossed” Czerny-Turner spectroscope optimized for wavelengths from near UV (<350nm) to near IR (1µm).

Diffraction Limited CCD Kameras

Aluma CCD 695 a

Our most popular camera, the SBIG Aluma AC4040 is a large format Scientific CMOS camera, featuring a 16.8 megapixel sensor with 9 micron pixels.  The camera is compatible with the StarChaser SC-4 Guider and optional AO-X Adaptive Optics accessories.

Diffraction Limited Overview

Packages

ASA RC800 + DDM500

ASA RC800 + DDM500

ASA at its best!

The RC800_5 package includes the RC800 OTA and our DDM500 mount with 1100 lb. capacity! The result is our highest performance available in a package deal.

The evolution milestone of telescopes.

The ASA800 0.8m is the largest aperture OTA offered from ASA without mount. Perfect fit for the ASA direct drive mounts with absolute encoders. As all ASA telescopes the ASA800 is equipped with quartz glass optics from ASA Our optics guarantee diffraction limited performance and best micro roughness numbers even under the most perfect earthbound astronomical seeing conditions while maintaining a fast f-ratio primary mirror design leading to less obstruction, higher contrast and a more compact system.

f6.85/f2.5 full carbon Richey-Chrétien design with absolute encoder secondary mirror focusing unit.

THE DDM500, THE LARGEST STANDARD MOUNT WITH ASA Direct Drive Technology AND ABSOLUTE ENCODERS AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE.

Over 15 years of experience went into the design of the DDM500. Ready to carry large aperture telescopes with the highest level of pointing and tracking accuracy. Load capacity is 500kg/1100lbs on a custom-built pier. The ASA DDM500 is the perfect workhorse for all areas of research ranging from astronomical observations to laser communication and satellite tracking

 Technical Details

data rc800Electronic
Our closed loop direct drive systems, sensor technology and observatory safety modules play a major role in achieving optimum results. All moving accessory components are equipped with high-resolution encoders and closed-loop feedback systems. We provide event timer modules, and customer updatable firmware.
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Optic

Only the best for your telescope!

We believe that the most important part in producing optics is the testing. So ASA decided that we invest in the best test equipment available, remove any measuring error as good as possible and use real values in our specifications.
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Technologie
Our mounts are manufactured with the lastest CNC technology.
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Software
Platform independent control software.
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asa800

 

RC & CDK Comparison

 

Inquire now    Datasheet

Advantages of the Ritchey–Chrétien Telescope Design
vs CDK (The Complete Story!)

 

 

spot2500spot2500 1ASA corrector examples

Below you are spot diagrams of our 800mm f/7 – f/2.5 RC with our standard field flattener. As you can see, we are also using 400nm in our wavelength calculation because most blue filters have a cutoff there and not at 430nm.The result is seeing-limited performance even in Paranal Seeing conditions up to 90mm field size. The next example is of a system we offer for the next generation of large CCD cameras and which has been delivered and commissioned already, it is a 1m system with a modified RC design and a 3-lens corrector.

 The seeing-limited field size is 135mm. You will not reach this performance if you limit the optical design with a spherical secondary mirror used in a Dall Kirkham system. More Myth Busting Another myth you may have heard mentioned is the RC’s higher sensitivity to collimation errors. Let’s also shed some light on this myth as well:

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In above examples we have used the:
• f/6.5 – f/2.93 CDK with an optimized elliptical primary
• f/6.5 – f/2.93 RC with corrector
In this case we have tilted the secondary mirror by 0.02°. If we assume a 300mm diameter secondary, this means a tilt of 0.1mm at one side. The result may surprise some people but it’s an indisputable optical fact: the RC with corrector is less sensitive to the secondary tilt than the CDK. It is also useful to examine the centering error. Let’s consider a secondary centering error of 0.5mm.

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In this case we can see a larger error in the case of the RC telescope. (It is however, nowhere near the 5x factor mentioned by our competitor.) Even more interesting - Most of the secondary center and tilt errors can be compensated by the final main mirror collimation with a star (looking at the in and out of focus images). Every owner of a Newtonian telescope is used to this procedure. Most customers need only 1-2 minutes to perform the final collimation.

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For example: to correct the secondary centering error, the main mirror would be tilted by 0.015°. This is shown in the above spot diagram. It proves that all the collimation errors can finally be corrected by ONE optical element (unless the errors would be huge, like 5mm secondary centering error). This happens
completely automatically and is straightforward if the customer removes the coma by centering the central obscuration visible in the in and out of focus images. Every RC can be collimated in 5 minutes with a simple laser collimator and a star. Just as important – our mechanical implementation of the RC design has stable
collimation over time!


Corrector flexibility and Reducer quality
With the RC design, you can optimize the reducer with the least number of lenses without having to take a corrector into account. ASA would never use a reducer behind our field flattener. Unfortunately for the customer - this is what an optical designer has to do if he has to put a reducer in a CDK with fixed lens
corrector. The next example is our standard 0.65x reducer for the 800mm f/7 - f/2.5 RC. This is a mid-size reducer that we offer for this telescope and it will work with image diagonals of 55mm. At ASA, the customer has the choice between three different reducers for different sized CCDs

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The largest lens has a diameter of 118mm but it is not possible to design a 3” reducer with 55mm field without causing excessive vignetting. With our 5” reducer, vignetting is less than 30%, which can be easily corrected by flat fields.
Conclusion(s)
• The RC (with corrector) is slightly more sensitive to secondary centering than the CDK.
• The CDK is more sensitive to secondary tilt than the RC.
• The RC OTA is shorter and more compact than the CDK – allowing for smaller observatories.
• The RC has a smaller central obstruction than the CDK.
• The RC produces higher contrast images than the CDK.
• The RC telescope is more versatile than the CDK. It can be used
1) without a flattener,
2) with a flattener, or
3) with a high-performance reducer

ASA/APM  Services

Optional Tests for FAT/SAT

In case of special requirements ASA/APM offers (against surcharge) a number of additional and advanced systems tests exceeding the standard acceptance test procedures. Please review the options for additional, on-demand factory acceptance and site acceptance tests from ASA following the link below and customize the test setup for your new telescope system from ASA.

Installation package remote/on-site

To deliver the best performance, high end telescope systems need to be installed correctly. We offer a number of different installation services, ASA/APM remote support for customer self-setup and installation by ASA experts on site. Please review the options for installation and customize your mechanical service.

Setup and Alignement remote/on-site

To deliver the best performance, high end telescope systems need to be installed correctly. We offer a number of different installation services, ASA remote support for customer self-setup and installation by ASA/APM experts on site. Please review the options for installation and customize your mechanical service.

Engineering Image Train Package

ASA/APM offers tailored image train design services to accommodate the unique needs of our customers. This encompasses the initial stage of defining image train components such as correctors, off-axis guiders, filter wheels, and cameras.

Alternative mirror coating

To meet the highest optical standards, we design and produce all optical components in ASA optical laboratory. This gives us the ability to customize optical systems, as well as provide the customer with special IR range coatings as needed for laser ranging applications. (AL/IH10) up to mirror sizes of 1000 mm. See our related datasheets following the links below.

Projektconsulting/-management by ASA/APM

ASA has a broad international installed base in the field. Over the past 10 years, ASA/APM has collected broad professional experience in running telescope projects in a “one stop shop” complete service offer for customers. Our consultancy is based on our own long term experience in telscope, shipping, mountigmn, etc.

ASA Accessories

APM Professional Telescopes

1m F/8 Ritchey Chrétien with dual Nasmyth Foci, Cape Town (South Africa)

Another large telescope for the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO). An 1m F/8 Alt-Az mounted Ritchey Chrétien for robotic use. It has dual Nasmyth Foci. The main telescopes used for research are located at the SAAO observing station (32°22.795’S 20°48,657’E) near Sutherland in the Northern Cape, a 4-hour drive from Cape Town.

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Contact Us
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions

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APM Telescopes
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