Astronomical Stabilization System

Max Planck Institute for Astronomy Engineering, 2005-06

Liaison(s): Mark Swain
Advisor(s): Patrick Little, Anthony Bright
Students(s): Emily Vinding Nyden (TL), Catherine Meyers, Valerie Olson, Sebastien Ronsse, Gregory Nielsen, Tamao Muramatsu (S)

To build an interferometer at Dome C in Antarctica, a stable 30m tower would be necessary to elevate the telescopes above the 27m boundary layer. The team has studied geometries designed to stabilize the top of the tower while minimizing wind resistance, and designed a global control system which controls pointing of a telescope to minimize the error in the image recorded by the telescope.