Development of the fine delay line in the Mitaka optical and infrared array (MIRA) project

Yukihiro Honma; Jun Nishikawa; Takashi Kasuga

doi:10.1117/12.317196

24 July 1998 Development of the fine delay line in the Mitaka optical and infrared array (MIRA) project

Yukihiro Honma, Jun Nishikawa, Takashi Kasuga

Proceedings Volume 3350, Astronomical Interferometry; (1998) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.317196
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 1998, Kona, HI, United States

Abstract

A fine delay lien for long-baseline optical interferometers is under development in MIRA project. The test structure of the fine delay line consists of a micro-stepping motor cart and a cat's eye cart. It is most important for the fine delay line to be driven as smoothly as possible at a steady speed of theoretical delay rate. Particularly, high frequency jitter in driving speed must be suppressed so that fringe position dose not move larger than +/- (lambda) /10 in the integration time. To accomplish this capability, we improved mainly the structure of the motor cart. As a consequence, our motor cart realized a good performance without any special servo-control mechanism. We also made several test of soft connection between motor cart and cat's eye cart as well as between cat's eye cart and cat's eye assembly with rubbers. It is found that by using appropriate rubbers we can reduce high frequency component of delay errors to a sufficiently low level at the cat's eye assembly. With positive results in these experiences, we have started designing a prototype of the vacuum fine delay line for MIRA-II having a 680 m baseline.

Citation Download Citation

Yukihiro Honma, Jun Nishikawa, and Takashi Kasuga "Development of the fine delay line in the Mitaka optical and infrared array (MIRA) project", Proc. SPIE 3350, Astronomical Interferometry, (24 July 1998); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.317196

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