Automated Spectroscopic Telescope
 
 
Tennessee State University in Nashville asked for help from the National Prototype Center (NPC) at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in building a two-meter automated spectroscopic telescope.

NPC constructed all the main structural parts of the telescope -- including the base, fork, azimuth and altitude drive wheels, a top-end structure to hold the secondary mirror, drive tractors, and structural modifications of an existing mirror cell -- as well as many accessory parts such as drive-wheel attachments, oil bearing pads, the secondary mirror cell, and instrument head. TSU was quite happy with the services. The completed telescope stands 20 ft tall, weighs 8 tons, is run by two separate computers, and has a dedicated high-dispersion spectrograph (under construction) for photographing the spectra of stars.

NPC was selected for the project because of the large size of the components and the precision manufacturing that was required. Some of the measurement tolerances of the major parts are within 0.001 of an inch, and some of the smaller parts needed to be within 0.0002 of an inch to work properly.

NPC's vertical boring mill (VBM) can perform precise cuts on very large objects. A 26-ft-diameter table on the VBM could hold major mount parts of the 20-ft telescope while the machine is boring and turning. The VBM is one of the largest in the country and can perform very precise cuts.

The telescope is installed at Arizona's Fairborn Observatory as of June, 2000, and may be seen at http://astro.tsuniv.edu.

 
 
In recognition of the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant's diverse, integrated capabilities and its commitment  
to succeeding with high-risk projects, the U.S. Congress in 1997 designated the Y-12 Plant  
as a National Prototype Center.  

For information, phone 1-800-356-4USA or visit our web site: http://orcmt.oakridge.org/npc.html