Micro-Epsilon receives large sensor order for segmented reflector telescope

Sensor specialist Micro-Epsilon has received an order from the Chinese Academy of Science to supply 600 eddy current sensors to the largest Chinese reflector telescope LAMOST (Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fibre Spectroscopic Telescope). The telescope is located in the Chinese observatory Yinglong Station near Peking. LAMOST is a new type of segmented reflector telescope for the spectroscopic surveying of space. A primary mirror receives the light from space and directs it to a correction mirror, which is in the focus of the primary mirror. The corrector, in turn, bundles the light information on an optical element such as, in this case, the fibre optic cable. The telescope has a primary mirror diameter of approx. 4m. The primary mirror and corrector comprise 46 or 24 individual mirror segments. The segments can be moved and can therefore be adjusted to different receiving angles between -10° and +90°. Due to the high optical resolution, the mirrors must be precisely aligned with each other. 600 eddy current sensors from Micro-Epsilon are used to achieve the required precision. The sensors were selected because of their sub-nanometre resolution and high reproducibility.