Survey Telescope control electronics

Abstract

A last generation Survey Telescope requires a large amount of electromechanical actuators and sensors, completed with control electronics to make functioning not only the main axes to point and track the observed object, but a lot of subsystems as well, such as the Active Optics, the Probe, the Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector and the Hydraulic Bearings System. Each of them is based on different kinds of motors and transducers and related electronics, fulfilling the different subsystems requirements. Here the VST (VLT Survey Telescope) case is reported, giving a general overview of the main control electronics. The VST is a 2.6 m class Alt-Azimuthal Survey Telescope to be installed at Cerro Paranal in Northern Chile, at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) premises, one of the best observation sites worldwide. The VST Telescope was designed and realized by the I.N.A.F., Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte. Nowadays its main structure has been already shipped to Chile, together with the Altitude and Azimuth axes control systems, meanwhile the subsystems controlling the two mirrors are still under completion in Naples.