Photo-Gallery of Construction
of TSU 2M Telescope

Construction of Telescope Mount:TSU chose the manufacturing center at ORNL to build the telescope mount in July, 1997. Construction proceeded steadily at ORNL and at other machine shops making various smaller parts of the telescope mount.

  1. Autocad drawing of Telescope Mount.
  2. Telescope base at ORNL, July, 1997.
  3. Telescope fork under construction at ORNL, July 1997, and after fabrication (side and top views with Rick Craze and John Barnes of ORNL), October, 1997.
  4. Top plate and base of telescope fork (showing arrangement of internal plates), July 1997.
  5. Telescope fork as finished: base showing bearing and top views, June, 1998.
  6. Azimuth slewing ring at ORNL, June, 1998.
  7. Central pivot to constrain telescope laterally (Schmiede Machine), August, 1998.
  8. Two of the oil pads at ORNL, October, 1997, and in the telescope, July, 1998.
  9. Modification of mirror cell at ORNL, July, 1998.
  10. Altitude axles, by Schmiede Machine of Tullahoma, Tenn.
  11. Axial support levers for the primary mirror, by Hamilton Machine of Nashville, Tenn.
  12. Machining altitude slewing ring at ORNL, July, 1998.

Integration of the 2-m Telescope: We put the telescope together in Nashville, so as to correct any problems with its mount and exercise its control system before transporting it to Arizona, during the interval January, 1998, to June, 2000. We first arranged for a space in the State of Tennessee's hanger at the Nashville Airport for this purpose, later moving to the National Guard Armory.

  1. State of Tennessee Hanger, site of telescope integration, and our new site in the National Guard Armory.
  2. Some essemtial tools for telescope integration.
  3. Arrival of primary mirror, January, 1998.
  4. Arrival of base, March, 1998.
  5. Base with slewing ring attached, July, 1998.
  6. Fork at airport attached, July, 1998.
  7. All major parts delivered, September, 1998.
  8. Lowering fork onto base, using alignment jig to center on slewing ring, final lowering onto oil pads, and Eaton and Henry afterward, September, 1998.
  9. Construction of oil pumping system, at TSU campus, January, 1998.
  10. Detail of oil pump showing tank and return pump, March, 1998.
  11. Telescope tube, with altitude slewing sector in background, and top end (secondary-mirror support), September, 1998.
  12. Attachment of mirror cell (tube) 14-15 Oct. 1998: Tube poised over fork ready for attachment of bearings into the pillow blocks to give telescope structure. Detail of cell showing arrangement of lifting slings. Another view of telescope at this stage.
  13. Attachment of slewing sector for altitude 19-26 Oct. 1998: Positioning of sector with crane, and attachment to mirror cell. Tube with sector in place. Measurement of runout of slewing sector. Machine for machining slewing sector in the telescope, April, 1999.
  14. Construction of base skirt 19 Oct.-Dec. 1998: Framework for skirt, from Hamilton Machine with some of the aluminum skin attached. Skirt fitted onto telescope.
  15. Construction of surrogate mirror Nov./Dec 1998: Measuring positions of pucks on the real mirror. Finished shell (Hamilton Machine) at The Collision Center of Goodlettesville, TN, for adding lateral attachment points; final version filled with concrete (Merto Ready Mix) on the lifting fixture and lifting it into telescope. Back of mirror cell showing mirror-supports.
  16. Assembly of drives, Dec 1998/Feb. 1999: Assembly of drive tractor at TSU (mounting berings for the rollers with hydraulic press), partially assembled tractor with one of two motors in place, and azimuth tractor in telescope. Altitude tractor fitted up for testing drive clamps. Testing motion in azimuth with manual controller. We have since (April 2000) experimented with replacement of devices to tension the drive tractors, which involved replacing the clamps with frames screwed rigidly to the fork: New azimuth tensioner in place and front view showing placement of the tensioning springs. New altitude tensioner in place and front view.
  17. Integration of top end (secondary-mirror holder), Jan/Feb 1999: Top end (quadrapod) on fixture for adjustment of baffle and after placing in telescope.
  18. Placement of glass mirror in telescope, April/May 1999: Mirror in box with cover from Hamilton Machine and lifting fixture provided by Torus Optics. On permanent lifting fixture. Richard Tantaris lifting it into into telescope.
  19. Control electronics: Boxes for electronics, made by Hamilton Machine and finished by TSU and in the telescope. A view showing wiring in main control box and in box for servo amplifiers.

Construction of small parts of the 2-m Telescope: We assembled the secondary mirror cell, the instrument head, and absolute encoder mounts in Nashville with the help of Mark Wells of Huntsville, AL.

  1. Secondary mirror cell weldment (from ORNL Y12) and with lever arms for lateral movement of the mirror.
  2. Assembled cell showing tripod to support the secondary mirror (mounted on invar stud); detail of lateral link connecting tripod to lever arm.
  3. Top view of cell showing linear actuators to move the mirror.
  4. Secondary mirror glued to its stud for attachment into the cell.
  5. Weldment for instrument head (version for testing telescope) ain in place in the telescope.
  6. Integration of instrument head: test setup with focusing target in place of pickoff mirror and later with pickoff mirror and electrical connections finished. Partially polished prototype pickoff mirror with holes drilled for the fibers.
  7. Scheme for coupling absolute encoder to azimuth axis, with attachment and winding of coupling cable.
  8. M. Wells and M. Krebs have made most of the parts for the spectrograph, such as the mount for the echelle grating, shown here in Wells' shop for machining attachment points for the fiber feeds and folding flat.