| The Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer | |
| Articles | AstroGuide | Calendar | Classifieds | Constellations | Forums Meteors | Moon | News | Photography | Planets | Shop | Other Sites |
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|||||
by
John Huggins
We start our photographic journey in the middle of the instrument located on top of Anderson Mesa, just outside the city of Flagstaff, Arizona.
View of the Instrument's Center
The white buildings house a type of telescope called a siderostat. Each
houses a 0.5 meter 
mirror
which collects the starlight and sends it to a mirror system which guides
the light to a central building. These units are alt-az mountings. Each
axis is driven by a stepper motor through a step down transmission. The
whole siderostat assembly rides on top of a three point stand which sits
on top of three concrete pillars. These pillars are solid all the way
down to the bedrock to provide high stability. The little black ball in
the middle of the mirror is a retro reflector for laser beams behind.
These lasers form a very precise distance measuring system which keeps
track of the mirror's movements with respect to the bedrock. This measurement
system can track changes of less than 20 billionths of a meter.
After
the starlight hits the siderostat mirrors, additional mirrors guide the
light to a feedbeam tube system. Each siderostat sends its beam of light
down one tube. Each tube maintains a vacuum to eliminate beam deformations.
Shown here are three feedbeam tubes. Eventually, the instrument will have
six tubes.
[Beginning] - [Next Page - Starlight Path]
| Additional Information |
|---|
 |
| About Astronomy Net | Advertise on Astronomy Net | Contact & Comments | Privacy Policy |
|
Unless otherwise specified, web site content Copyright 1994-2025 John Huggins All Rights Reserved "dbHTML," "AstroGuide," "ASTRONOMY.NET" & "VA.NET" are trademarks of John Huggins |