Development of a 1-m Robotic Telescope System

Abstract

Korea Astronomy & Space Science Institute (KASI) has installed a 1-m robotic telescope at Mt. Lemmon, AZ, in collaboration with a company, Astronomical Consultants & Equipment, Inc (ACE). The telescope system is totally designed to make fully robotic observations, and can be operated in both interactive and unattended robotic modes. The telescope is newly designed and manufactured regarding both mechanical and optical parts. The optical system is designed to collect 80% of the incident light within ${0\rlap {.}{}^{\mathrm {\prime \prime }}5}$ with an $f/7.5$ Ritchey-Chretien design. The telescope mount is an equatorial fork with a friction drive system, and it allows fully programmable tracking speeds with a typical range of $15'' \,\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ and an accuracy of $\pm 5'' \,\mathrm{hr}^{-1}$. The mount system includes an integral pointing model to correct for mechanical errors and misalignments, and an auto-guide unit is also available. To gather environmental information a weather station and an all sky camera are installed at the site. In this paper we introduce the system design and the performance of the mechanical and optical quality of the telescope system based on the results of test observations using some variable stars.