• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.224-229
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• 2012

In this paper, we propose a correction method for astronomical telescope using recursive least square method. There are two ways to move a telescope : equatorial operation and altazimuth operation. We must align polar axis of a equatorial telescope with the north celestial pole and adjust the horizontal axis of a altazimuth telescope exactly to match the celestial coordinate system with the telescope coordinate system. This process needs time and expertise. We can skip existing process and correct a tracking error easily by deriving the relationship of the celestial coordinate system and the telescope coordinate system using the proposed correction method. We obtain the coordinate of a celestial body in the celestial coordinate system and the telescope coordinate system and derive a transformation matrix through the obtained coordinate. We use recursive least square method to estimate the unknown parameters of a transformation matrix. Finally, we implement a telescope control system using a microprocessor and verify the performance of the correction method. Through an experiment, we show the validity of the proposed correction method.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.57-73
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• 1996

As a continuing effort to develop an automatic control system for small telescope, we developed the software for telescope control and CCD observations under DOS operating system. For accurate pointing of the telescope in short amount of time, we modelled the angular speed of the telescope by aquadratic function of time (constant acceleration) for the first 15 second and then linear function of time (zero acceleration) aftwewards. By changing the telescope speed from 'slew' to 'fine' before the telescope reaches the desired position, we could achieve the accuracy of a few arcsecond. The CCD control software was written for model CCD-10 of CCD Technology. This CCD can be used for guiding purposes. We also conducted the study for remote control of the telescope using telephone line. Although it cannot be used for real observations at the present form, we succeded in remotely pointing the telescope to desired direction. As faster communication technologies become widely available, simple observations can be made remotely in the near future. Finally we report some observational results made with the present control system.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.211-220
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• 2000

Korea Astronomy Observatory(KAO) is working to retrofit its 1m robotic telescope in collaboration with a company (ACE, Astronomical Consultants & Equipment). The telescope system is being totally refurbished to make a fully automatic telescope which can operate in both interactive and fully autonomous robotic modes. Progress has been made in design and manufacturing of the telescope mount, mechanics, and optical performance system tests are being made for re-configured primary and secondary mirrors. The optical system is designed to collect 80% incident light within 0.5 arcsec with f/7.5 Ritchey-Chretien design. The telescope mount is an equatorial fork with a friction drive system. The design allows fully programmable tracking speeds with typical range of 15 arcsec/sec with accuracy of $\pm5$ arcsec/hour. The mount system has integral pointing model software to correct for refraction, and all mechanical errors and misalignments. The pointing model will permit positioning to better than 30 arcsec RMS within $75^{\circ}$ from zenith and 45 arcsec RMS elsewhere on the sky. The software is designed for interactive, remote and robotic modes of operation. In interactive and remote mode the user can manually enter coordinates or retrieve them from a computer file. In robotic mode the telescope controller downloads the coordinates in the order determined by the scheduler. The telescope will be equipped with a CCD camera and will be accessible via the internet.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.81-86
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• 2006

Even though 30inch optical telescope at Kyung Hee Astronomy Observatory has been used to produce a series of scientific achievements since its first light in 1992, numerous difficulties in operating of the telescope have hindered the precise observations needed for further researches. Since the currently used PC-TCS(Personal Computer based Telescope Control System) software based on ISA-bus type is outdated, it doesn't have a user friendly interface and make it impossible to scale. Also accumulated errors which are generated by discordance from input and output signals into a motion controller required new control system. Thus we have improved the telescope control system by updating software and modifying mechanical parts. We applied a new BLDC(brushless DC) servo motor system to the mechanical parts of the telescope and developed a control software using Visual Basic6.0. As a result, we could achieve a high accuracy in controlling of the telescope and use the user friendly GUI(Graphic User Interface).

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.72.1-72.1
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• 2019

The Giant Magellan Telescope Organization (GMTO) is developing the GMT Software Development Kit (SDK) for the Observatory Control System (OCS). The SDK models a subsystem of the GMT using a Domain Specific Language (DSL) which can generate a skeleton code and validates the availability of the model automatically. The OCS includes a Device Control System (DCS) and all the devices are connected with the DCS via EtherCAT. The DCS has a component (Hardware Adapter) to communicate with EtherCAT slaves. In this presentation, we demonstrate the modeling process and describe the importance and usage plan of the SDK.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.76.1-76.1
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• 2021

Maemi Dual Field Telescope System (MDFTS) is a dual telescope system located at Kyung Hee University. The system consists of 0.4 m telescope and 0.1 m telescope for wide-field observation. The 0.4 m telescope provides photometric observation which covers a field of view of 21'×16'. It has been used for various purposes with Johnson-Cousins UBVRI broadband filter system, e.g., SomangNet and Intensive Monitoring Survey of Nearby Galaxies. In this poster, we present the standard calibration result for our broadband filter system. Also, we suggest a new usage of the KHAO 0.4m telescope which is narrowband photometry by demonstrating the standard calibration of H-alpha filter. For flux calibration, not only R filter but also V filter is used for compensating the central wavelength discrepancy between R filter and H-alpha filter.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.183-190
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• 1996

To design three-mirror telescope system (F/8, 120 inch in focal length) for visible and infra-red band imaging, methods for power configuring and correction of the third order aberrations were studied. In the design of the telescope system, a three-mirror system corrected for spherical aberration, coma, and astigmatism was used for infra-red imaging, and the aberrations were corrected by using conic surfaces. For visible imaging, a singlet corrector lens was appended at the front of the focal plane to correct filed curvature. The telescope system has diffraction limited performance for 10 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ in wavelength within 2.4$^{\circ}$ of field-of-view. In the visible band imaging, the rms spot size of the telescope system is less than 25 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ within 3$^{\circ}$ of field-of-view for monochromatic light, and the telescope system satisfies flat field condition for CCD application.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2004

As the first step of the real time monitoring system of the solar radio disturbance, we constructed the control system of the solar radio telescope. An 1.8m antenna built by Korean Astronomy Observatory has been used, and the observed radio flux is transformed to the digital signal by the powermeter. We have also developed a computer program CBNUART in order to control the telescope system and the powermeter. As the sun rises, the telescope begins to observe the sun, and ends the observation automatically at sunset. The CBNUART enables the telescope automatically to go to the position of the sunrise for the beginning the observation and come back to the setposition after the ending the observation at the sunset. An active tracking routine is adopted in order to improve the tracking accuracy of the control system, and we used an optical telescope equipped in front of the antenna for control test. The tracking test shows that our control system can track with the accuracy of arc seconds, and the 50 minute pointing test shows that the pointing accuracy of right ascension and declination are 1.12 and 0.08 arc minutes respectively.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.163-175
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• 1996

We propose the development and test result of new optical axis alignment system for the interchangeable F/8 secondary mirror of the BOAO 1.8m telescope system. Since the original system was not equipped with a suitable optical alignment facility, the whole alignment process was performed by hand. It was necessary at least three persons working more than 2 nights and the altitude of the telescope could not exceed 10 degrees, in such altitude the alignment quality was not so good by atmospheric effect. The new system adopts position readable motorized system and remote control operation by the computer installed in observation room, which reduces the number of workers to only one and eliminates the altitude restriction. The defocused CCD image pair obtained at higher altitude makes the aberration estimates more accurately and the number of required alignment loops is reduced from 10 to 4. The system has been installed on September 1, and performed alignment three times. The test results show that the system is stable and accurate, gives better optical performance of the telescope under F/8 focus. We hope to emphasize the fact that the new system will increase observation time of the telescope by about 20 nights per year assuming one alignment in every month.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.13 no.1 s.14
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• pp.85-98
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• 1998

In this paper we describe MS-TCS, the telescope control system which was developed in Korea Astronomy Observatory. MS-TCS can control an equatorial type telescope equipped with stepping motors and incremental type optical encoders. MS-TCS consists of (1) POINT_TEL which is the program roning in a PC and (2) TCS-196 which is the electroics board to control the telescope. The communication between the PC and TCS-l96 is done through RS-232 or RS-422 serial line. MS-TCS can control the secondary mirror and dome. It also provide network function using TCP/IP for remote control of the telescope. MS-TCS is suitable for controlling medium to small size telescope for research and education.