UK Astronomy Technology Centre: Design,
development and implementation of VISTA telescope’s primary mirror (M1
control ) system software
The client:
The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council is responsible for
organising the design, construction and commissioning of the VISTA
telescope through its UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) in
Edinburgh, Scotland.
Project background
VISTA, the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope
for Astronomy, is a new, 4.1m diameter, wide field survey telescope
being which will be sited at the Cerro Paranal Observatory and operated
as part of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile.
Our responsibility
Observatory Sciences is designing, developing
and implementing the software to adjust the position and shape of the
VISTA telescope’s primary (M1) mirror.
About the mirror control system
The mirror control system hardware consists of a
set of 84 supports which carry a share of the external forces during
changing conditions. These include different telescope positions and
variable wind gusts as well as gravity. As the telescope changes
position, so the loads on the primary mirror alter. At a rate of 50
times a second, the software will calculate the forces to be applied by
the active supports to compensate for the ongoing changes and ensure
that the mirror maintains optimal shape for best possible image quality
at all times.
Client comment (2003)
“Observatory Sciences is experienced in designing
and producing software used to control large telescopes. For example,
the company was responsible for several telescope and instrument
control systems software projects for the Gemini 8m telescope. This was
an important factor in our selection of Observatory Sciences as the
winner of the competitive tender for this part of VISTA.”
Malcolm Stewart, head of software, UK ATC.
Technical
Control system: VME-based hardware, Wind River
VxWorks / Power PC processor; higher level software: ESO VLT Common
Software running on a Hewlett Packard Unix (HP-UX) workstation;
communications: via CANbus (Control Area Network bus).
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