STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE REFLECTING SURFACE SYSTEM OF A LARGE ASTRONOMICAL TELESCOPE

The reflecting Schmidt plate system of the large sky area multi-object fiber spectroscopic telescope (LAMOST) serves active optical correction with a reflecting surface of segmented mirror. An azimuth-altitude mounting is adopted with two self-aligning ball bearings for altitude axis and hydrostatic bearings for azimuth. With static and modal analyses, finite element modeling of the full Schmidt plate system is discussed. Conventional seismic response spectrum has been adapted for particular application for telescope engineering before a seismic response spectrum analysis is performed, and results have confirmed that the design of the reflecting Schmidt plate manifests good performance and can survive the seismic intensity of up to 7 magnitude specified by technical requirements.