01-28, pp. 531-559, 1985 0083-6836/85 $0.00 + .50 Copyeight « 1983 Pergamon Press Lia Yeetae tn Aesroncmyy Printed in Great Britain. All Fights veseey THE WILLIAM HERSCHEL TELESCOPE A. Boksenberg Royal Greenwich Observatory, Herstmonceux Caste, Hailsham, East The construction of the new 6.tnaltazinuth-aounted telescope 42 sow neariag conpletion, It, fed Sone af its toateusentationy are devertoed ta tom Sota « 4s pare of the Inaae Newton Group of telescopes based on La Palma tn the Obtervatorto del Rogue de oe Mocharhos of he Teatttuto de Aetrofiatcs de Canarias, The foyal Greenwich cbecrvatory, on Sehaie of the OK Sclence and Bhsinering Research Counctl and the Netherlands organisation for the Aivanceneat of Pare Tasearch, 18 Installing 4 ney 4.20 altartauth-aousted telescopes This elescope, known as the Millian Herschel Telescope, wis designed by the RGD tn conjunction with Freensn Fox and partners aed aanutactured by Grubb Parsons Led (orthera Engineering Industries Ple) tm Neveastlo; tt 18 due to become operational in 1987. A substantial complement of fnatrumeats ts being prepared by the RGO ond university grovps a Britain and the Sethertaads for aeneral ‘The MIT wLI1 be the worlds third largest celescope with a single atin atrror ond tt te expected that the already proven excellent observing conditions on La Pains, together vith the wos? up-to= Gate Lostrunents and detoctors, will give {£ the edge over {ts larger rival ope tn the USSR. The telescope has been asseabled and thoroughly tested + the Sm Ealecope sa the USA and the a tel fat the Grubb Parsons works (Plate 1) at now étsnantled and ready for shipping to a Peli has butte but after a century tn che business with many fanous telescopes constructed, acluding the Tsage Newton Telescope, tt 46 their last. The WT butlding with Les aisttacttve dowe now 4s nearing completion on the aountain site (Plate $) and will be ready for the Lostallatton of the has et Lee atringent pertarnance spectftcations. Te te The WHT ts the Largese telescope Grubb Parsons telescope by the RO, starting late tn 1985. 2 GENERAL OPTICAL, DEscREETON The telescope Ls of clasaical Cossegratn optical configuration, the parabototdal primary alrror ts mde of « gla 18r0 coefftcleat of expansion over the operattag enperatore raage. It has a clear aperture of 42a and a focal Length of 10.50 (£/205)+ ami matertat (Cervit) having nea es dleseter-tovthickaass ratio of 8 aakes tr ehtoner than for aoat large telescopes bullt tn fable as a thin alrror aad ratses no spectal problens for tte tlabitey of ene etrror recent yoare, but St 48 not cha The precise dtaneter of 4.20 was deternined by the a support ayete blank, made by Ovens-rLlinots, The mirror is aow undergoing its Elndl stages of ftgurteg et Grubs Parsons (Place 3). Te tw telteved thar thte will be the moat accurate large alsroc yet made, concentrating 85 per cent of the light of @ distant star into an area only Ox} arc sec tn Afted by means of the Lrregulartttes tn the uevatrone diameter, The mirror figure wae a reflected fron it. It ts necessary for the alrtor to be vaty saath and accurate oa scales of 20en oF as Portions of the ntrror separated ty larger di + atace Me Ls about the size of ene atacspherte cells above che La Paina site. ances than this aay be tLlted relative co onesa As Bokaeabers nother so long ax they direct che 11gne within the 0.3 are sec tolerance, Thus, che alrror is ‘scourate to within 1/50 of the vavelength of Hght at a scale of 2en, about 1/15 wavelength at Bem land about 1/2 wavelength at In ot wore, ‘The focus of the uncorrected primary alrror would chow strong coma off-axis but the incorporation of @ three-elenent correcting lens (Ftgs 1) before the prise focus will give an unvignerted field fof 40 are mln atanerer extending to 60 arc min dlaneter at aoninally 0.6 transateston. The 2/208 effective focal ratio of the prteary mirror with corrector Uhen oot operating at prine focus, a convex typarbolotdal secondary atrror, made of Zerodur, 1.08 tn diameter, dirsces the Light theough a ceatea} hole io the prinary aferor to the mata tasteunentatton qounted at the Cassegrain focus beneath the prisary airror cell. The telescope also incorporates a third uain mirror, ¢ flat, angled at 43°, which can be gotor-driven into posttton at the Latersection of the axex, Just above the primary airror, so chat che light from the secondery ix diverted sidaways etther chrough one of the altitude bearlage co the Nasayeh platforas whore particularly Large of atssive {ostrunents can be placed, or to an intermedLate, Cassegraia position for use of amall, subsidiary, sastruaeats. As detired ducing the taht, tasteunents gouated at any of these four stations can be selected within minutes by the notion of the stagle Mas Gassegrain and Nasayth fact 18 46.2n (E/11)s The available uavignetted field diaseters are 15 are jth flat mirror, The elective focal length of the telescope for che fain ar the direct Cassegrain focus and arc aio at che Msnyth and folded Cassegrata fort. To compensate for che rotation of the star fLeld which occurs a an altaztmuth-aounted telescope, otor driven turntables are provided for the Anstrusente st the priae focus and cossegrata observiag stations. Instruments vill sot be rotated at the Misayth stations but an optical image rotator will be tntroduead when required, To reduce both Light loss aed golarteation tn the image rotator, priamt of fused silica with total internal reflection are used rather than alrrors (Fige 2)+ Fused silica lenses cenented to these prisae, with a final elenent of UBKT glass, extend the optical path (a5 4s necessary to provide an accessible focus) to give an effective focal ratio of 4/112, With the celescope rafocussed by moving the secondary alrror downwards by 3.82m, the position of the final focus La Mdentheal ko that of the morsel Nasnyeh focus, The final inage rotates at twice the angular speed of the sotator optics, which also change the faage saeity. The nage rotator partially vignettes the asnyth field; the unvignetted fleld ts 2.5 arc ain tn Woles in the atcucture of the telescope will allow for ee eventual addition of coudé atrrors to provide Light path merging from the telescope building for aa Leterferonetric link £9 another 3s TELESCOPE TUDE ‘The telescope tube 4s of conventional open truss fora (Plates 1 and 2). 4 rectangular box section centrepiece carries both che altétude bearing trumnione and the Serrurier trusses vntch support the prinary airror cell at one end and the sacondary airror of prie focus asseably at the other. ‘The truantons are thick cylindrical tee) forgings which bolt to the outer faces of the ‘centrepiece and hose bores clear the 11ght patha fo the Nesayth foct. A aotortzed countervetght 44 fleted in each corner of the centrepiece to provide altitude belaace trtaaing. Attached witha the centreplece ts «eat of spider vanes which supports che 43° sasnyeh atrror bly and a sky baffle structure, The Saenyeh mirror is mounted on @ gotorcdriven curatable indexed at four 90° positions wntch allows 4t to direct the secondary light beam to ny of the two Nammyth focal positions or the folded Cassegraia position, Alteraatively, fa rhe fourth rotation potsston, through tn additional sotormdriven aechantan which flies the aleror cell about pivots atET ay a a —_oF TELESCOPE 0 05 metres 1-0 Figure 1. The three elesent prine focus corrector of the 42m telescopes The ‘first evo elenents sre of UBKY lass (Schott) and the roar eleseat Io of fused silica, The configuration ts based on a design by synne C1974). ——| ce ROTATOR 313182 Na Figore 2. the Nasnyth taage rotator. The prisas with eheLe extended ences ae of fused silica (ileraeus Honostl) and the final eng elevent ts of UBK7 “glass (Schott) and is cenented to the adjecent silica mrtace, ‘There ts 8 clearance of \rw frou the final elenent to the focus. ian, err Ser. Figure 3. Prinary ateror cell shoving the axial end transverse support aystens.538 A. Boksenberg the lover eid of {88 backplate, the alrror can be atoved facing outwards (agatast a dust cover) just clear of the Lighe beam, for use of the direct Cassegrain focuss The secondary alcror assembly is attachad to # mator-driven focussing eechanian housed in a cylindrical arom vhtch ta mupported by a ayeten of pre-tenaioned apider vanea within « movable ring able to pivot about its hortzontal dtaneter inside s fixed cop end ring carried by the upper Serrurter trusses. The sovable ring can be rotated by means of a motor drive through LAU° and motor-driven Latches lock {t serurely to the fixed ring in either of tts reo positions. Shmal find pover lead are seconnodared within a cablewrap device, for the change to prime focus operation the telescope tube 1s lovered to gear-horizonta) and che sounting ring rotated co bring the secondary aleror assembly facing outwards so that £¢ can be easily removed from che focussing with me ring rewsining in the rotated position, The whole somt-nanual operation takes about 30 Inimites, The rotating end cing feature obviates the conventional aead to change couplers top end ings and the associated requirenents for large handling equipment and large done clearance; ‘also, only one, permanently installed, focussing nechantes 1s needed. The prine forus untt incorporates a precteion motor-driven turntable to which cameras or other instrugents can be fattached, and a cableerap device takes electcte cables to instruments nounted there, The unit leo has aa internal lange cage 4 provided ao the prine focus ineteuneate must be controlled renotely like those at all the for carrying the prime foeu corrector lens asseably. No observer other foets bareplate carrying the cover petals and drive aesenbly. The lover Serrurier trusses carry the ry aleeor cover 1s suspended below the centrepiece oo Arfranes whten support a elrealar prtoary alrror cell in viich the axis] and tranaverse support syatess for the airror are mounted. The cel ts a welded steel fabrication basteally conststing of a stiffened flat aise vith a dox section cylindrical surrounding wall. Setveen the top face of the cell wall and the sirror cover baseplate is systen of aanifold ductvork for veattlating the prisary atrror. Selow the prinary hirror cell is an extension place viuch carries the Cassegrata inttrusent turntable and ite cablevray system, Gal Befoary Hieron The aLreor has sophisticated axtal and transverse support eysteas (Fig. 3 and Plate 4). The axtal support system consists of two aub-ayatens: an axial flotation eysten de up of an array of preunatte cylinders employing roll-diaphragat aa seals cogether with a punping aysten providing the jae presaure needed to eupport the full mirror welght, and an axtal defining eysten Whten locates the airror in tts correct axtal position at thr points around the atrror edga Load sensors in the axial definers provide stgiels which control the pressure in the pneuaatic eylladers; the aysten alae allows fine hetght and elle adjustnents fo be made, A aysten of spring loaded vest pads supports the atrror ven the meusatc systea ts not pressurized. The cylinders of the axial flotation aysten, a total of 60, are arranged {a three concentric Fingt fon the floor of the airror call, The optiaua arrangenent was detersined by uss of a Finite ot computer anslysts of atrror deflections (Mack, 1980). The cylinders are divided into three sectors each of 120°, aymateteally disposed about a dianeter perpendicular to the telescopes altitude axis. all the cylinders tn each group are connected by a syaten of manifolds and pipet to an tndividval controller housed Ankide the mirror cell. Each of the three controllers have t2o fats of electrically-operated valves: one connects the cylinders to a pressurized atcrogen reservoir, che other opeas the cylinders to a vacuua tonk. The valves cre controled by the output of the aagoctated losd cell tn auch a vay that the force exerted by thever) ins see he ou tox ge. mite he nds the William Herschel Telescope 39 Iirror oa the defining polot 1s eaintatned at ctSky during tracking at all angles of the telescope tube fron the zontth dove fo ehe horizon, The total weight of the primary airror ie ‘The ntrror 4s supported in s transverse {rection by wetghted levers coupled by Lak ares to brackets concerted fo the edge of the atrror fa mich the sane vay ae a conventional pushepull Fadial support aysten, However, as the mirror vill ot rotate wlth respect to the gravity Gtrection, the weighted levers aod Linkages are attanged to act only in the vertical direction and [Se spaced unequally fn such a vay that cach patr of wetghted levers, one pushing snd the other pulling, effectively supports a “slice” of the alrror equal to one-tuel€th of ite total velght, This efftctent arrangement ts only posatble in an altarimuth sounting. 0 plan view the force applied by each pate of wetghted levers acts through the centre of gravity of its elice, but tn elevation all the forces are applied tn the one plane containing the centre of gravity af the hole airror. Transverse deftiners take the form of tangential Links tying the wirror to tts eel? at three 90° positions, 4.2 Secondary wtrror The ateror ts supported axtally by a mechanical six-potnt load distrtbutton lever aystea cenented fo the cear face of the arror, and transverse flotation is provided by conventional system of Push-pull levers and countervelghts. These support aystens are accomodated in a cell which ts attached to 4 backplate at three potnts; one attachnent potnt incorporates a spherical tearing, vatle the other two are adjustable by aeans of motoraUttven push rods witch allow change of ctit oF colltaation of the utrror. Surrounding the airror cell but not dlrectly attached to it ie @ Lighewetgne sky baffle. 5+ TELESCOPE HouNTaNG ‘The sounting Ls of the altazimuth type, with vertical a hortzoatal axes of rotation (Plate 2). The aleteude axis trunatons on the eelescope tube ceatreplece are supported on cylindrical hydrostatic beartags carried on sctt columes which are attached to @ base box. the latter is a fabetcated steveture chat forme the cates! unt of the mounting. The base box 4s souated on a fat, hortaoaeal, annular ring ghrder whtch {x supported axially by ste hydrostatic bearing pads, fo provide the altitude axis; six associated radial bearing pada provide centralizing forces. The bearing asseublies are supported on atools set on the building pters Yorizontal attactaent faces on brackets at each side of the celescope rigidly fixed outboard of the colusss eaable large tnstruneate to be carried for the two Nasayth fort. Esch kasnyth focal station also has on observer access platfora, Independently supported froa the base bor to Intnintse the Eranselaston of vibrations from the observer to the tnstruneat. These focal stations can be reached at 11 positions of the telescope from an annular st 1 balcony 4a the butlding. Cabling for the telescope services and instruments. p es from the butlding pler, ehrough an srimith cable estacer to the base box, then up one eoluan and over an altitude cablevrap to the telescope tobe centreptece, 44 cables, 2 water Lines, a nitrogen ine and 6 high pre hoses feed chrough the azimuth cable teister aad 69 cables, & vater line end a attrogen Line pass over the altteade cableweap. 4m the centre of the upper surface of the base box is a rectangular eLsing platfors with the etd fof watch the Gassegrain instruments con be mounted and serviced. At its lowest position tes surface Mes flush with s load-bearing floor attached £0 the base box and the coluont. The floor has ronovable plates hich cover cantilevered rate. By rotating the telescope in azimuth these Fatis can be aligned vith rails fixed tn # close-fitting, annular, ratsed steel platforn (Plate ©), and accurately supporced in hetghe with the aid of preunatically operated lever assenblies,and butlding. rough the dome section thi Figure 4. Cross-tcross-section through the doe and buttdings Figure 4. the ratle carry a handling trolley to support the alrror and its cell off the telescope, for use daring the aluntatetag procedures The trolley enables ee atrror and cell to be brought away from the telescope, on a radial extension to the plattora, 0 that the atrror can be lifted clear with ‘the aid of a crave suspended frou the done, then lovered 9 the building grovad level. There tt ss washed, then ifted onto the alustaistng tank 1d qounred on nother erolley moving on ratte feet tn the concrete floor, and fiaatly taken to the aluminizing plant. (6. TELESCOPE DRIVES AND CONTROL Identical prectaton straight opur gears are fitted co che to axes of the telescope, and the drivtog torque co each of these 42 provided through pinions by two dlrectacurrent torque motors supplied from fadtvtduel power amplifiers sharing a common coateol signal. the aztmuth drive gear Le aounted on the bullding pler and the motor units are fltted onto the ring girder of the telescope mounting. The aleltude drive gear 4 fltted to the telescope tube centrepiece and tea sotors are attached to a plate carried on one coluan of the telescope mounting. A tachogenerator land an electronametic brake are fitted £0 each aotor shaft. Maximum roattons are 0-959 from the horizontal and 2 270° about fast For each axis, the servo control system has three feedback Loops: (a) current or torque, which 1s jenerated within the control electrontes, (6) velocity, from the tachogenerstor and (c) prectaton Fate, whlch ts developed etther {ron 4 17-bLt tncrenental shaft encoder driven through & ptaton off the aain gear or a 20-bit roller drivan encoder, each giving the sane accuracy of 0.09 ate ‘osolute posttton 4s obtained fron a par of gear driven sate encoders on each axts of the cope. Tt ts intended that the telescope potating acruracy be 1 are sec or better alter compensation ty the computer control aystea for all repeatable errors. On exch axts the drive sata for sleving but oppose for saplifters are electrically blassed so chat the t¥o notors tracking. the maximum sleving speed for both axes tx 1? aecTl vith acceleration during sleving reaching « maxtmin of 0.3° agc2, For tracktag, 2 local torque Joop around the two aotors in each lacie patnealns continiovs gear tooth contact derlag all cracking accelerations up to # naxtnun of 0.029 secw2. On the rere occasions whan tracking aa object Witch passes closer ro the zenith ehan about 042°, obscrving will have to cease tenporarily whtle the telescope traverses a “blind” region through viich Lf will not be able to track coatiquously. During this time, vaten will be less hen 3 minutes for the WIT, the telescope will slew through a large azinuth angle (160? tf ‘the object happens 9 pass through the rentth), to reacquire the object as Lt leaves the blind region he snstruuant curntables are also ériven by servo-controlled dtrectocurrent corque motors, but che requtrenents for precieion are not at high as for cracking, The posttton angles ere controlled with an accuracy of shout 5 are seo. In normal uae, all the cetescope drives are controlled from an operations desk by means of a computer ayaten whtch connunteates with each of the motors and encoders through & parallel CAMAC escope potttton {8 noattored using the absolute encoders and a drive cope t0 the destred position in the shortest poasthle tine, Tate ond, while tracking, {ntoraation from the snerem systems hen sleviag, the rate calevlated to save the tel caleulation 1s performed 20 tines a encoders 1s used to define the drive signals, The computation of the drive signals sacludes coordinate transformations, calculation of the felescope mechanical deformations and er and ‘ntaaligooents, and stmulation of the servo coaponeats. All the instrument turntal cablevrap devices are conteolled tn aympathy wlth the telescope motion, a well as the posttions of che dome observing SIit and windscreen. Te DONE aD aU LEDING 4. Te teleecope 19 jection ehrough the done ang bulldiag 4s shown tn FE A echenatte rossaa A toksonbors, supported by @ reloforced concrete pler in the fora of @ hollow cyltader Tm in diameter and én Intgh (Plate 6). This pace the ceatee of rotation of the telescoge at 4 hetght of Ita shove the round. The done 1s onton-shaped, of 2m Latersal ataneter, with shutters covering an observing sItt 6m In iden. A patr of upand-over shutters with o windscreen roupled co che lover shutter will allow observattons gown to 12° hove the horizon, The dome {+ supported on 4 raft set onto a cylindrical concrete butldtng structure which {nternally 18 open co ground level. A ctreular hole tn the contre of the concrete floor allovs clearance for the pler witch ts supported on {Independently plled foundattons to Sxolate the telescope from bullding vibrations and vind hagce. Set on one sige of the eyiindrtcal drum is 4 3 storey rectangular annex of ronventional construction, This contatas the afrror alupiticing plant, the operations control 00m, computer room, dark roowe, workshops, offices and various services, Secause no unecessary activity takes place in the dome there 1s very little thermal disturbance of the air neor the telescope, which greatly Improves the chance of achieving perfect “done seeing’. Ths 4a further fFactlttated by large extractor Fane set {nto the cylindrical ottucture. ‘Te telescope and butlding were destgued in consultation with Freeman Fox and Partoers by 4 teem at the RGO led by WL31iam Goodsell with Jota Pope as telescope project engineer and Roviand Miner 4as civil engineers The astronomical spectftearion was laid down by representatives of the UX ‘sstconontcal community In the 1970s. In the event, the early configuration proved to be too expensive to be accomodated within the avatlable funding, Tue present design of the telescope and butiding originated in a detatled reappraisal completed in January 1980 by weabers of che 860, Feeean Tox and Partners, Grubb Parsons Ltd and the wide UK astrononteal conmintty. The coabiaed sroup popularly vas called the Tiger Tease, ‘The Tiger Tens early recognised that the aleartnuth mounting had already ensbled 4 very econoatcal design to be evolved for a high pertormance telescope and, although a saving of about 20 per cent could be made, there vas more scope for the cutting of butlding costs, The building had been Geatgned in the style of those current at the tine, as, for example, those for the Kiet Peak National Observatory and the Anglo-Australten Observatory da telescopes. Studies of ataoapherte intcroturbulence oo the La Palaa observatory site shoved chet teagerature fluctuations at atght are contined to a thin layer near the ground as che pravatling wind sweeps up the slope of the site. ‘The owasureneacs of alcrotheraal fluctuetions are correlated with seeing veasured by the Polaris tratl method. Gecauso local seeing ts confined to such a thin ground layer tt vas decided that a Atgire near ln for the helght of the felescope altitude akin above the ground level was anpl Tels allowed a very large reduction tn the aize of the telescope building and plor wtthout comproaise of performance, With ehts mich reduced te) scope butlding, aa attached annex housing the alunintzing plant, operattons control room, workshops, offices, ate, was necessary, but tt ‘could be of convent tonal construction since 1 bears no load fron the done and 50 was ecoaoatcatly tatlored £0 ene alniaun practical needs. ‘The done itself vas seduced in dtaneter, and therefore cost, by making the telescope mre compacts The done radios vas set principally by three factors. The obvious and most taportant vas the Celescope prinary focal length. originally spectfied at £/3+2, the fora) ratio of the aleror was reduced t0 £/2.3, and the done radiut chen could be ceduced by over Quy With 4 redestgned triplet lens fleld corrector there vas Little extra deterioration of taage quality at the prine focus over the large CLold angle required. Design work by Gherles Hymne af the RGD shoved that & corrector for an £/205 telescope covering a 19 field could ta fact be made to give total inage epread not Jos for the exceeding 0.5 are ses in the spectral range 240-852n0, with sont refocussing ne shorter wavelengths, The Toan considered shortening the focal length of the prinary alrror even ore, but the cose of figuring the mtrror would increase as its speed was tncre ‘equipment sssoctaced with making che secondary atror would have had to be manufactured.cco DETECTOR IMAGE PHOTON COUNTING SYSTEM DETECTOR BS3) CCD _AUTOGUIDANCE CAGal oerector INTENSIFIED TV CAMERA FP FABRY-PEROT ins ilot-REsoLUTION FINDER S SPECTROGRAPH FAINT-OBJECT FOS SPECTROGRAPH ACQUISITION & GUIDANCE UNIT RARE euoroneteR! laa cf] nes Srecraoneren Figure 5. Schematic outline showing the arrangonent of the snstrunents and eluted aquipaeat et the four prinedpal foct of the telescope.Moreover, at focal ratlos faster than {/2:5 the ertplet corrector caniot cope with « large Held, ‘although are than 15 are min ts still posable at £/2.0. Thus there were significant cost and sctentifte penaictes, vatle there vas 1Letle compensating benef{t since the alotaue done raitus vas sot by a second factor, nanely the constraints taposed by handling the petaary ateror for sluaintatng. These two factors (focal length and atrror handling) set the maxtmin Length for the Nasnyth platforas to [Lt the avallable space. It shortened them fro the generous éu length ortgtnally apectfted, tut in the process of rebalancing the telescope sone length has been retrieved, Feduetag the working distance from cube axis to t space for an instrunent nore than fn long. AE the sane tne, the clearance behind the Cassegratn ounting face for an Acqutsirion and Guldance Ute and Inetruneatation was reduced from 4.2 £0 7th focus by Os5a, so that there is stfll 208m Cleaving space, however, for an Lastrusent 2.0n long). This shortened the colume of the telescope and made tt possible to simplify their design, increase the stiffness and still aave wetght. From these two changes the mass of the celescope uae reduced from 250 tonnes to 200 A aajor operational benefit introduced by the new buLlding configuration with reduction tn done voluae, which the Tean vas quick to note, was the increased potential for inproved done seeing, rot only because of the alainsl heat input to the air in'the vieinlty of the telescope and ies stghe-Lines but also because of the relative ease with which the done could be ventilated. to speed this, the dome aperture waz aade vide and unconstrained and large extractor fans were Ancorporated in the cylindrical butlding structure, Ortgtaalty 11 three astrophysical telescopes on La Pana had been specttied to have the sane £/15 Gessograin focal ratto, vith the Lntention of staplifying the transfer of iostruseats setveen ‘then. Tats benefit, of dubious uttllty, was abandoned as the opttaun focel ratio for the Cassegrata focus of the MIT wae considered agstast cot and actentifte benefit, Because the Anstrunent clearance at che Cassegrata atstion had been reduced it was no longer posstbie, for fexaaple, to bolld a straight-through apectrogaph with & I5ea collinator bean (co f£t avaliable ‘sratings) If che £/15 focel ratio was retained, and Le would be aece! ry reflection. At f/11 thts extra ateror 18 not nece ry to fold the telescope beam ond lose Light at an uaneces: secondary atrror ¢o produce s faster Cassegrain focal ratte then this aust be larger than about In Aiaaecer; then {¢ begins to obscure a imifteant amount of Llght by its shadow and also would have entatled purchase of nov test oquipaent for {ta manufacture. The secondary focal ratio was thus sot at f/11. Finally, a plan for an £/35 secondary aicror for infrared work was postponed, simplifying the cop ends The budget for ene de go, erection and manufacture of the WNT, ts control syste, done, butldtng, slustntzing cok and otter plasty and a full set of instrunentation ts e15H (October 1984 prices). Te equivalent cost of the original design 1s €25Ms The deslgn evolved by the Tiger Toan currently ts betng brought to cealtzation by a tean of engineers and sclentists at the GO now led by Michael Woreka, with Brian Mack etvll engineer and Nell Parker responsible for the instrumentation and ite supporting telescope project engineer, Rovland Milner as 9+ INSTHUMENTATION AND RELAY 9-1 syaten outline ‘The uesiiey of any telescope depends hugely on the capabtitty of the Anstrusents Le feede, The contisual, rep{d increase in the fonctlonal sophtsticetion of instrunentation for opttcal squtenent fstronoay, and the frequent tneroduction of major eahancenents or of fundamentally nev Anstcusents, netns that a description of the sulee of instruaants now Ae preparation for the WITela, re, the 200 tee ns he he bie In wd sal the Willian Herschel Telescope 5 1 there ts 4 baste requirenent for lanoutd be taken tn sone respects aa {llustrative, Severthele Versatlie and effictent spectrographtc Saetrunents, rhese representing the major analytical technique of the sstronoaer, and for ighly sensitive imaging detectors both to serve in such spectrographs and for direct teaging purposes. Such equipment for the WHT, Sn concept at Teast, Vili persist for the foreseeable future, There will be, of course, a continual trend rovards higher optical efficteney snd increased detector sensitivity; the clear potential for this can be faeen fron the tact that the overall efftetency of the telescope and a typical complex Lostruneat te sone orders, of miguttude greater than eb avatlable just a fev decades agre HIN WHEL Acer a catt for competitive tender to propose and producdtfyteufepiebii ite the wt, several rows ta che UF and Netherlands astrosoaicnl communities ae sa avolved tn the production of the cote tustruseate cp be brought into use over the iret fev years of telescope operation, Produceton of sone iaetconents, and the Sustrunentation support infrascructore tnciuding control dyoten. end. aoyutattion and. patdance facilities, together with the genera} coordination and oagonent of all the fnstruneat sork, 18 the renponetDLltty of ohe ROD. ‘the core tasteunente and related facilities now {a production, destyn oF planning stages are: a versatile intersedfate dtapersion double spectrograph (Known as ISIS), 9 fixed-foraat Manly the Falnt object Spectrograph, FOS) functionally ‘eftletent low dtsperston spectrograph (Known intograted with TSTS, a polarization untt incorporated within ISIS and lao avatlable for the f08, tan inaging Fabry Perot tnterferoneter with addfttonal taaging options (known as TAURUS TH), @ hhtgh-dtepersion echelle spectrograph, = Fabry Perot untt for the latter, infrared toarrunentatton yet to be fully specttted, « prine focus canera for photographic plates or electronic detectors, fan Inage Photon Gouneing Systen (IPCS I) and a charge-coupled device (CCD) canera system both ith several head units to operate with the above instruments as appropriate or to be used for Givece iaaging, and untts to provide sequtattion and guidance factlittes for these instruments, Figs 5 shove the dlapositton of these nstrusents and detectors sround the four principal focal stations of the telescope. The rapld changes between Cassegrata and Nesayeh foct made posstble by lise of the sovable Nasayeh flat airror wtll allow, for individual objects, near-sisultaneous cbservations with different nsteusents, a well ax matching of the needs of diftereat observing progranen vith the prevailing conditions so factittating “flexible scheduling” of observing aLJooattons. ‘the usher of sastruneats aad detectors that will be eltner in use or aounted eng avattable for fare at any one Eine, together wtth the probleas of handling very large quantities of high- bandwidth data, require the adoption of an integrated systen approach to tho manageaeat of the observing functions, Fartlcular features of this ere the use of distelbuted processing and ce unkt has tee ome networkiag. ach Lastrusent, detector systen, and acquisition and gitd fatcroprocessor controller Linked co 4 aysten contcol conputer through a “uttlity network’. The telescope control coaputer also te Linked to the systes couputer so that foatrunent and telescope functions can be readily coordinated. The alcroprocessore each contain appropriate command repertoises to handle the coaplex loce) control functions and safety toterlock procedures, and only high level, tle eoncritical, instructions and data are moved around the network. Contral sinic dtaplays “piving che status of each fostrugent can also be haadled by the distributed snteroprocessors 4a ehie way. A large sentconductor menory oxternal co the system control computer will be used to gather and dteplay data from the TPCS IL and the CoD detectors via 9 hish-speed Jaraliel data bve, and aleo for array processing functtoas such a# on-line flet-fteiding for presentational purposes while observing, ice for the uch effort has been thvested 1a producing spectroscopte and Lange processing soft Digttel squtpneat Corporation VAX conputer based Sterlink systen distributed {a the UK over thecentres of activity in astronoay. for this reason a VAK computer has been chosen ax the WHT"s system control conputer. Apart from tts executive, coordinating and recording functions tt wi used for carrying out data reduction using Starlink software hath for on-line assessment of the progress of observations, and for full data processing which the obsorver may then continue oo returning t9 one base, The use of a VAX systea alsa has the tnverse advantage that spectfte Processing procedures written at the telescope to cover observers” apectal requirenents then can bbe used on the hone coaputers. Like the telescope, 11 the instrumentation and related fartlities are being buLlt to be operated fully remotely. Inkttally the observers will be positioned tnaide the nearby cote! room as te now conventional, but 4¢ 16 planned that a substantial proportion of observing vill be conducted fron control room in the KGO"s hone base ia the Uk, possibly also Lisked to the observers” hone snsticuttons. The need for travelling co the distant observatory site thus obviated, flexible scheduling of difterent programmes, according to observing conditions, Secomes a practical proposttton. Specific instruments, factltttes and devices aentioasd above are now deserthed tn goss detalles 9.2 Cansegrain Acquisttion and GuLdance uate This unle, now tm producrton at the RCO, provides a rigid support for the acqutsteton televiston wate must be held in registration vith the telescope focal plane. BtsLcally it te e cylindrteal structure with axial length equal to tts radius (65ea) and annular flanges at esch end co enable ‘atrachent to the Gassegrata turnteble of the telescope and for the mounting of instruments. A spectfle sectional view of the uate vith the ISIS and FOS tnateaments attached Ls outlined in Flue 6; not all the structural decatt nor all of the components protruding fro or within the lenin the structure, t4o independent radtally govable probes sich carrying atrror allov the sane Celevision camera to view the central 1.5 are sla alther of the direct telescope fLeld (when also Light from an integrating sphere {Iluminated ty chosen comparison lamps my be sent to the sostconent) of of the Inclined sltt Jave of the spectrograph with the afrrored telescope ftelde An sleernative image scale {6 provided by 9 focal reduetag Lens which can be drought before che television camera to give 9 4 arc ala fleld. The camera uses a Secondary Electron Conduction televtstin tube with preceding tntenstfier stage, aov conventional in this application, and haa an sseoctated systen of interchangeable filters; it ta mounted on a aotorized slide to ellow renote focussing, There Ls electronic provision tn the cagera systen both for oxtarget Lategration before readout and accumulation of © auccesston of tnages in an Integratiog digital memory. An fautogitder probe aysten within the ane structure works in a sector outside the central 9 are ata of the Cassogrstn fteld. The autogutder 19 based on the use of a CCD as detector, which ts fed by means of @ scanning prisn assoably which can rotate about the Snttrunent axis and be aoved radially to sequtre an appropriate guide star, It tao has cenote focussing capeblitey and an fassoclated systen of Lnterchangeable fUtere, A separate filter asseably set below the scquisitton and autogutder probes ‘s provided for use with the attached instruments. This has two Fleer atides, one for neutral density ‘Yer another fllter sssenbly 14 included vith the comparison lange dategrating sphere to avotd the t1eare and the other for colout and interfereace filter eed for filter cuanging between alteraate exposures on an attrononical object aad related conpartson arcs. a addieton co che mata tastrunent mounting face, the unft has an auxtl{ary focal station with the Full unvignected 15 are mtn cassegratn f1eld available for milti-object apectoscopy using optical fbre probes. The foce) plane te external to the cylindrical fe structure and 4s fed by 4 largethe Willian Herschel Telescope sa novable Flat mirror supported on alidevays at {te upper and lover edges. The fibre optic systen requires its en automuider sensor because the gain autogutder probe La occulted. The sane focal tation 45 elo svatlabie for saali tnstrugents not requtring the large fLeld, and then ts fed by reeans of a radially sovable probe careying 2 gnali mirror which does allov the use of the untc“a fautoguldee probe. Such an fnstrument, for exeaple a CCD cagera, vil) be used to complement the natn insteumeat mounted oa the untt, with the operational convenience of rapid interchange between then. ‘The future incorporation of an tnage stablltzation system, basically @ high-bandvidch avtogitder probe and actuated alrror, ts planned as an opttonsl feed for the mia Lnstrumeats to take advantage of the mrked reductiog tn instantaneous image size this gives ‘hn atnoapherte dispersion corrector will be mounted Just sbove rhe untt, within the telescope 9.3 11s, nis versatile Cassegrain instrument constats of two Intermediate dispersion spectrographs which fean be operated one ot a tine oF simsltaneously, and are separately optinised for the blue and ced sctral regtons, This to co be the workhorse {nstruneat of the Kelescope and 19 expected co be 1e fe betng produced by the RGD and Oxford used for the majority of the observing programas University in a collaborative effort with the design and construction carried out doatnantly at the RGO. A sectional view of ISIS conplenenting Flas 6 {4 shown in Figs 7s tn fret ‘the ‘ain dosign goals are to provide: a range of dispersions between 130 and 16 A aa" order, corresponding to a range {a resolving pouer respectively between 800 and 7000 when using a nattow (Oo5 ate sec) slitesdth; waxtnum possible throughput; high operating effictency in both the Jetcingrup and observing modes, with the capability of operating the blue and red opectrographs a ingle volt; rapld aterchaage betwees ISIS and the FOS, which share the sane elit assenbly; ong slit (4 are ain), multi-site and ftbre optic feed capabilities; a cross-dtspersed ode capable of recording the wavelength range from 300 to 11000 with 2 resolving pover of about 20005 factitetes for apeetro-polerinetry; and ful) capability of being renotely operated. ‘the optical layout of ISIS (with the £08) and te main components are shova ta Figs 6. The #/11 collinators are 5° off-axis parabololds end give 150 diaseter beans, Soth the folded blue and red caatras, each of 50 em foes] length, are based on a design by Wynne (1977). The collimator ‘camera tncluded angle 18 60° for both channels. The blue chanael generally vill use the 1POS IT 1s detector and the red channel, a dual-COD canera, The projected s11¢ scale et the focal plane ) wives good natching of the Latrleste recolution of che detectors (better chan +The elit assembly sonstats of evo (4.7 are see as 30 microns FARK) ond the od seeing typical of la remotely Lnterchangeable unies mounted on & common sllde catering for conventional Jong-sitt spectroucopy and for miitt-object work both with multiple sites and vith optical ftbres fed from che auriilary focal seatlon of che Aequtestton and Guidance Unte. An exploded {Ilustration of the elit assembly and other operational components is given in Fige 9. This ts a highly versatile rcangenaat, allowing the observer fo change quickly between these afferent odes of observatton in eespoase to changing atmospheric condéttons oF actentifie requtroments, The slit area als: acconnodates dakker atide, an ananorph lena system (to give taproved aatching of the collinated bean when working at steep grating angles), and half-vave and quarter-vave polarization slides: ‘alt located above the slit, and 4 Wollaston priam slide and a ffeld lene (assoctated with the faconorph system) nounced below che slit. The eleseate of the polarization ualt are to be provided by Durhaw Untveratey. ‘Tere are to optical folding uatta (Figs. 8 and 9). The Free, ianedtately below the slit, can accommodate ekther a fused stlica prism and dichrofe filter or two éichrote ftlters, and a clear postcton, The second folding untt gives the option of etther a folding atrror for the red‘ : t+] seen,0128130 ‘S247 550Figure 9, Exploded AAlustrattonchannel, of a straight-through path £0 the FOS, The dichrote fLirers sharply split the Itghe ineo two wavebands which are spproprtately passed to the blue and red channels; several dtchrote filters wlth differen cross-over wavelengths fa the range 480 to 600nn will be avaliable for oonting a# required. tn addit{on to the flters provided tn the Acquisition and Catdance untt separate belovesiit neutral density and colour filter slides are available for che two channels. ae focussing purposes, Tee fntetal gracing as fe of reaotoly controlled Hartaann shutters is placed a frost of each colligator for mabliex will accept only ¢ siagle grating at a tine but a future developaent wil} allow sounting tio gratings back-to-back, vith reaote selection. ‘he grating cells accept standard gratings with a ruled area of 15.4 x 20s6em, and can be rotated renorely. The blue channel canta 1s designed to operate over the wavelength rango 300 t0 600an sand has an secesstble back focus to accept either the IPCS II or a COO caaera. The rod channel camera ts optisizes co cover the wavelength range 400 £0 1100eq. Two GEC Crus mounted side by fetde oa a comon block are uted as the detectors for ets channel. Tn both cameras a rapidly operating 1ghe-tisht shutter £2 provided behind the folding alrror to Isolate the detector from tthe spectrograph when required. ‘The usin structure of ISIS t4 @ steel fabrication witch hay been designed using finite elesent analysts methods. Although ISIS te large snd massive (1-5 tonnes) it will be sutftetently rhgta to Mate sheets tn the image plane at the detectors to less than 5 microae over an hour of tracktog on the sky. 9.4 aloe Onject spectrograph ‘The FOS 1s a collMnator-lees dedicated (aot versatile) spectrograph designed to have the utnost effictency for use at low dispersion and covering the widest posstble wavelength range (Wyone 1982a,0). Ie te sown 1a outline in Flgs 6. The FOS enploys a transatssion grating whose ng ort plate of a Schaldt-type canora, 49 eliminating four glass-atr surfaces, The grating lies in the eubstrace Ls cengnted onto a crossmdtaper: Which {n turn 4a ceneated onto the aspherte divergent bean from the ISIS slit a6 resultant complicated sbeccations are satisfactorily corrected by appropriate adjust separation, tit and centering of the rest of the components of the eystea. A COD detector Le ‘mounted oo 8 cooled finger whitch supports 4¢ at ehe internal focus of the Schaldt-type canera 40 svoLdtag the aed for a farther reflecting surface to provide an external focus as for the ISIS madly vhen the ateakgnt-through mode 42 selected. The cameras, A stetlar spectrograph, Sullt JoLatly by the AGO and Durhan University, {9 operating oo the Inaac Newton Teleacope ‘taurus fs a wide-field (9 are win) inaging Fabry Perot toterferoaster ortginally developed jolatly by the R50 and Inpersad College, London (Atherton et al. 1982) to map velocity flelds of extended for multiple astrononteal aatasion-line sovrcet, using a seevorcontrolled scanning Pabry Perot etalon 86 a narrowband tunable filter. Effectively, tt alloss twodteenstonal iaages to be recorded in any sdjacent narrow wavelength bands, Typical observing programes relate to che study of gas 4a externel galaxies, HII regtoas, supersovse reanaats, and other Kinde of nebulae, ‘A new, fully automated version, Taurus IL, 48 betng butlt by the Kapteya Sterrenwacht Verkgroep ta Roden, the Netherlands, wtth some techateal input from the RCO. This {a to be one of the leceetcally seaaned tnatrusents, The etalone have 65am clear aperture and are piezo: Ceosesr: through a stabilising servo-loop using captettance aleronerers and Planned, with gaps cangiag fron 10 to 600 aterone, gtviag respective Free spectral ranges from 19800 to 164km sec} and resolutions rox 260 to 4,7kn sec!, Four high-precision wechantene, each 1a servorcontrolled wheel, are ued for interchanging atalone, tnput focal plane end peptl plane titers, end input focal plane apertures or masks, and there t# also 4 vartety of alsor sechanisas for canore focus ng, control of a ehutter, ate, The detector co be used with ehts instrument ts‘The William Herschel Teleseane 353 ‘taurus IT has three primary modes of use: 1) Imaging specteoscops, 0 which the etalon 48 stepped in eyachronten with the readout of the detector, resulting in three-dinentional data set (two spatial and one spectral) uhtch is celtbrared using aonochromatie and coattnuun Lanp sources. Such data sets are used to derive vetoctey Fields, spatially discrete He shapes end tntensittes, and coattnuum aaps. HL) Natrowband iaaging, without an et fon but using any of the 16 possible FLcers through which to toage the sky. A typicsl application tor ehis mode tx the construction of emission-line ratio maps. LL) Woieteobject spectroscopy, using grfans fa place of che etalons and misks with patterns of slits inserted in the input focal plane aperture wheel. 96 Devectors ‘The CCD cavers syaten for the AT Le betng developed Jointly by che Radtosterrenvacht st ovingeloo 4m the Watherlands, and the B60. It 1s @ development of the CCD canera designed by the 250 for the Taate Newton Telescope. The new design retales the flextbitty of programable vaveforas, but fonphasis hae been placed on the abtI{ty to drive and read out several different CCD chips either together or separately. Large format CCus, nov 4a development by more than one manufacturer, also ean be acconmodated. the 1805 II ts aa evolution fron the ortgleal 1°G5 developed at University College London and oo (Boksenberg 1982). A nay CO-based readout systen to replace the Fluabicon tube aystes centrotding electronics enploying an interpolative aethod, (Bokseaberg et al. 1985) are under construction t UCL. This wil} be preceded atther by the fourcstage intensifter also used tn the original system but wlth « aey coupling lene (Worewick and Hynne 1985) oF by a mlerochannel place Antensitter with tapered flbee optte oF lens couplings Atherton, PsDey Taylor, Key Pike, CsDe, Harmer, CoPAsy Parker, Notley and Hook, R. 1982. Mon Noes as astes S00, 201, 661: voksstbevEy hr 1082, PAL. Trans. Re Socs Lands Ass 307, S31 Botaenberg, Ac, Coleaaiy, Cols, Fordham Js tridge, K+ 1985. Advences tn Electrontes Electton Payetes, 64h, 3 Mack; Be T9BT. AppIied Gpetes, 19, 1000. Uoreuten, SPs, and Wyone, Gr 1985. The Opservatory, 105, 95+ Uyone, ics 1974. Mone sot Re astr. Soer, IOP, 169+ lynne, iG. 1977. Hoss Wot Rast Soe 160, 465. Uyone, C6. 19822." opeten eta, 29, 137. Uyone, Cle. 1982: pefem Aces, 29) 1557.