About RC Optical Systems...
RC Optical Systems, Inc.
1650 South Plaza Way,
Suite 101
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
ph 928 526-5380
fax 928 526-5382
January 24, 2009
Who is RC Optical Systems?
RC Optical Systems was founded in the mid 1990s with the goal of manufacturing the highest quality astronomical telescopes possible. Since quality and performance is our priority, we continue to review our designs and manufacturing methods to ensure improvements are made wherever possible. Customer feedback is our most important resource in product development.
Our customer base originally started with amateur astronomers and quickly spread to professional astronomers, institutions, governments, defense contractors and militaries around the world. Not only do we design and manufacture the highest quality astronomical equipment, we also make highly specialized telescopes.
Our first space telescope (a 20” Ritchey-Chrétien) was launched in December 2007 and is in orbit at this moment. NASA also expects to launch another 20RC space telescope later this year. RCOS developed and offers a complete line of "Ruggedized" telescope for military applications including Satellite and Ballistic Tracking, LIDAR Systems, LIBS Systems, and HEL Beam Directors. As we continue to improve our products, RCOS is always exploring and employing new methods and materials such as ION Milling and Silicon Carbide (SiC) optics.
RCOS is a small business that designs, engineers and manufactures all of their own products. We do all of our own engineering, machining and fabrication in house. When needed, we also contract with additional optical, machining, and fabrication facilities. In just 15 short years, we have delivered literally hundreds of professional telescopes with apertures ranging from 10 inch (.25m) to 34 inch (.86m).
Where is RC Optical Systems?
RC Optical Systems has been based in Flagstaff, AZ since 1998. Due to rapid growth and the need to expand, we purchased 2.6 acres and built our own 30,000 sq ft "light industrial" commercial facility, which was completed in January 2007.
We currently occupy 11,000 sq ft. Our machining facility shares this building with fabrication, creating an efficient means of assembly and integration. We have leased out 100% of the remaining 18,000+ sq ft allowing us time and room for growth.
Optical / Mechanical - Design, Engineering and Analysis…
RCOS has an in house engineering department that specialize in CAD, Solid Modeling, and Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Before a critical part is machined, FEA is done on the solid model to test for flexure, stress and frequency analysis using COSMOS. For example, we want to measure the deflection of the optics and mirror cell when pointed at or below the horizon. Using SolidWorks 2009, ZEMAX and Cosmos, we can fine tune the design so that the optical performance will meet the customer’s expectations.
This shows the displacement due to the mirror weight (side view on left).
The deviation scale is ~ 18,500:1. The actual mirror angle is ~ 13.5 micro radians
Carbon Composite Construction...
RCOS was first in the industry to make use of carbon fiber composite fabrication techniques as standard construction over a decade ago. Carbon fiber is the ultimate material for telescope manufacturing as it has a near zero co-efficient of expansion (lower than Invar) and a VERY low specific heat capacity. Many telescope manufactures still use invar (or quartz) metering rods to stabilize spacing between the primary and secondary mirrors. But these materials are fragile, heavy, and have a high specific heat capacity radiating heat into the light path. Invar is NOT an ideal material for use in a telescope, while carbon fiber is.
RCOS has since demonstrated the advantages of carbon fiber and carbon / Nomex on literally 100s of telescopes.
This ½ wall Carbon / Nomex tube is 29” dia x 72” long and weighs 48 pounds.
Equatorial Fork Mounts…
Most of the smaller instruments were mounted on commercially off the shelf (COTS) German Equatorial Mounts. For larger telescopes, RCOS manufactures highly accurate Equatorial Fork Mounts and Elevation over Azimuth Gimbal mounts. These mounts are performing superbly for astronomical imaging and satellite tracking. Our 24s on the RCOS Equatorial Fork Mounts are taking up to 15 minute unguided exposures. All of these astronomical telescopes are reporting exceptional sidereal tracking and stability.
Latest Installation - Swarthmore College gets their RCOS 24RC and Professional Series Equatorial Fork Mount. Installed and set up by RCOS January 14th, 2009.
Elevation over Azimuth Gimbal Mounts...
RCOS also developed an Elevation over Azimuth tracking mount for astronomy. It can acquire and track Low Earth Orbit Satellites Maximum slew speeds of 20 degrees per second makes for fast acquisition of the satellite. As with the Equatorial Mount shown above, pointing and tracking is superb.Sidereal tracking with an equatorial mount is easy. The difficult part of the EL / AZ mount was accurate sidereal and high speed tracking across the sky. EL / AZ mounts have inherent field rotation. So we developed a Field De-Rotator, a follow on to our very successful Instrument Rotator. A Field De-Rotator is necessary for long exposure celestial imaging to correct for field rotation.
Central to success of LEO acquisition and open loop tracking is accurate modeling of Gimbal and telescope misalignments and flexures. Using pro-TPoint and a simple automated mapping routine we have modeled our primary telescope to achieve pointing and tracking accuracies within a population standard deviation of 1.3 arc-sec (which is 1.1 arc-sec RMS). Once modeled, a mobile system can easily and quickly be calibrated to the sky using a simple 6-10 star map to solve for axis tilt and collimation coefficients.
Autonomous Low Earth Orbit Satellite and Orbital Debris tracking using RCOS Elevation over Azimuth Gimbal with Mid Aperture (20” and 24”) COTS Telescopes.