[We have episodes in German and English] How do scientists uncover phenomena and explain their connections? How do engineers design machines, methods and infrastructure? At omega tau, experts give detailed answers. Over the last ten years, we have produced 300 episodes in which we dug deeper, until we ran out of questions. Join us on our journey through the world of science and engineering: the closer you look and listen, the more interesting things get.
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episode 150: .5 - Controlling the ELT
Guest: Thomas Pfrommer Host: Markus Voelter Shownoter: Pascal Becker
Six years ago, in episode 150, Jochen Liske of ESO told us about the Extremely Large Telescope that is currently being built in Chile. This episode is a continuation (which is why this is a kind of bonus episode labelled as 150.5) in which Thomas Pfrommer tells us about how to control the optical path of this monster telescope: the 39 meter, 798-segment main mirror, plus the four additional mirrors involved in bringing the light to a stable and sharp focus. I recorded this episode mainly to fill in some “gaps” I needed for the book chapter on telescopes.
Here is the paper I read, which triggered this episode: MELT – An optomechanical emulation testbench for ELT wavefront control and phasing strategy. You should read it before you listen. Just kidding (sort of :-)).
E-ELT Telescope Setup 00:04:09
Ligth's five-mirror Journey through the E-ELT | 3 Mirros Design | Anastigmat | TMT (Thirty Meter Telescope) Hawaii | GTC (Gran Telescopio Canarias) | Wavefront | Adaptive Optics | Active Optics | LBT (Large Binocular Telescope) | VLT (Very Large Telescope) | Lookup Table | Open-Loop Control (omega tau 111 - Optical Astronomy and the Large Binocular Telescope)
Interaction between control and adaptive optics 00:47:08Atmospheric distortion
Mini E-ELT 00:52:50