Ultra-Lightweight Telescope Mount

ABSTRACT.We have developed a transportable, lightweight telescope mount. It is capable of carrying a primary mirror of up to 2.5 m in diameter, but is only 7 m high and weighs 5 tons, approximately one-fifth the weight of a conventional telescope. We measured the pointing and the tracking accuracies to be better than 3″ and 0″.5 for 10 minutes, for pointing and tracking, respectively. We have demonstrated that the telescope is readily transportable while retaining sufficient accuracy for astronomical observations.