Telescopes
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LOCAL, REMOTE and ROBOTIC TURN-KEY OBSERVATORY SYSTEMS ACE specializes in fully integrated turnkey observatory systems for the modern research and public education facility. We currently invite inquires for systems in the 0.5-m to 2.0-m aperture range. ACE has built 1-m class equatorial and alt-azimuth telescopes. These are true research grade instruments designed for local, remote and robotic observations. Our line of instruments, dome-controls and weather detectors provide a complete automation system.
Installation of an ACE 0.7-m altitude-azimuth telescope for St. Paul's School, Concord, NH. The telescope was fully assembled and sky-tested at the ACE production facility before being partially disassembled for shipment and installation through the dome slit. 
Our equatorial mounts meet the same stringent requirements. The generous 40:1 friction roller drives are completely free of backlash and give open-loop tracking errors (no corrections from auto-guider) of less than 1 arc second in 5 minutes and less than 5 arc seconds in 1 hour. To achieve this an ephemeris is generated to show flexure and refraction corrections during the (1 hour or more) exposure and the telescope is synchronized to the high-resolution encoders. This image shows an ACE 1.0-m telescope built in 2001 for the Korea Astronomy Observatory. We are in the process of fulfilling orders for a 0.6-m and a 0.8-m equatorial telescope. These clients had open-bid requests and chose ACE over the competition for total system integration, custom fabrication, professional consulting and competitive pricing. These telescopes work with a suite of ACE instruments, dome controls and a weather station to make a fully automated observatory.
ACE 0.61m f/9 Ritchey-Chretien telescope with aplanatic corrector.
The Paul & Jane Meyer Telescope for the Central Texas Astronomical Society. The upper truss assembly is made of carbon fiber and the lower truss has a perforated mesh to permit air flow around the mirror. Cooling fans draw air through the fork arms and down out of the rear of the polar axle. The telescope is capable of very high slew speeds yet it is almost silent when moving. The main science camera has 20 micron pixels and produces wide-field images through an ACE dual filter wheel. The auxiliary port has a smaller CCD array with 7 micron pixels and can obtain high resolution images of the planets in addition to acquiring faint guide stars. It takes images through an ACE mini filter wheel equipped with planetary filters. Alternatively, an eyepiece can be placed at either port. All cables are routed through the forks arms and polar axle to provide an exceptionally "clean" appearance. The fork arms were designed to permit an observer to comfortably reach the eyepiece even when the telescope is pointed at the celestial pole. ACE provided a turn-key service for this robotic research facility including consulting with the architect and building contractor, providing the dome automation, weather station, telescope, instrumentation, and full installation with staff training.
We have the expertise and resources to act as prime contractor for your
project. This includes liaison with your architects, supply of the
telescope, dome enclosure, auxiliary instruments and complete system
installation and integration. Continued long-term maintenance and
support contracts help ensure the observatory remains in peak operating
condition.
Our services are not merely limited to the supply of the equipment. Our clients have a diverse background from professional astronomers at national observatories to physics and general science educators. They all have one common goal: to procure the very best equipment to meet their objectives within their budget. We provide the following consulting services where requested:
We have prepared general background information on the selection of the telescope and observatory. We hope you find this initial information useful and we welcome your call for a free detailed consultation. We suggest you look at the information in the following order:
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The
telescope is equipped with on-axis encoders with resolution < 0.1 arc seconds
and ultra-high resolution servo motors on the friction drives. The whole
system was designed for robotic operation with features like fully automatic
mirror petals, a focus ram with 0.1 micron encoder resolution, integrated flat
field lamps, an instrument de-rotator, a filter wheel with absolute encoding,
and a CCD camera. A fully controllable tertiary flat mirror directs light
either to the de-rotated CCD Nasmyth port or to second Nasmyth port equipped
with an eyepiece for visual studies. A research grade spectrograph is
planned for the Nasmyth (eyepiece) port. All service utilities, like
electrical cables, bottled nitrogen gas (for keeping dew from forming on the CCD
and filters) and video cables are routed through the main azimuth bearing and
then through internal conduits in the fork arms and tube truss elements.
Four 115 VAC outlets are available at the top of the telescope for auxiliary
cameras. To prevent azimuth cable-wrap a programmable logic controller
(PLC) monitors the azimuth limits which are set 540° apart. The telescope
operates at a slew velocity of 10°/s which is about 50% of its maximum
capability.
