Performance Of The Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) III. Seeing Experiments With The MMT

Jacques M. Beckers; J. T. Williams

doi:10.1117/12.933499

4 November 1982 Performance Of The Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) III. Seeing Experiments With The MMT

Jacques M. Beckers, J. T. Williams

Proceedings Volume 0332, Advanced Technology Optical Telescopes I; (1982) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.933499
Event: 1982 Astronomy Conferences, 1982, Tucson, United States

Abstract

Image quality rivals telescope aperture in importance for astronomical observing. For many astronomical experiments the telescope diameter to image diameter ratio defines the merit of the telescope system, so that decreasing the image size by, say, 10% is as important as increasing the telescope diameter by 10%. Since the former can be done often at a fraction of the cost of the latter we have made considerable effort to improve the MMT seeing. By using largely passive means for controlling the thermal environment of the MMT we have eliminated most of the seeing effects originating in and around the telescope and building. On excellent nights the effects of external seeing associated with the atmosphere above the site are undetectable so that on those nights the telescope optics defines the 0.5 arc sec FWHM image size.

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Jacques M. Beckers and J. T. Williams "Performance Of The Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) III. Seeing Experiments With The MMT", Proc. SPIE 0332, Advanced Technology Optical Telescopes I, (4 November 1982); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.933499

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