In-orbit focal adjustment of the AKARI telescope with and without liquid helium cryogen

T. Onaka; H. Kaneda; T. Wada; I. Sakon; Y. Ita; T. Takagi; W. Kim

doi:10.1117/12.787725

12 July 2008 In-orbit focal adjustment of the AKARI telescope with and without liquid helium cryogen

T. Onaka, H. Kaneda, T. Wada, I. Sakon, Y. Ita, T. Takagi, W. Kim

Proceedings Volume 7010, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2008: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter; 70102X (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.787725
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2008, Marseille, France

Abstract

The AKARI satellite carries a cryogenically cooled telescope of an F/6 Richey-Chetien system with a sandwich-type silicon carbide (SiC) primary mirror of 685mm in effective diameter. The AKARI satellite ran out of the liquid helium (LHe) cryogen on 26 August 2006. With LHe the telescope system was kept around 6K, whereas it is kept around 40K by the on-board cryocoolers after the LHe exhaustion. The telescope system has a focus adjustment mechanism in the secondary mirror assembly. The telescope focus on orbit was adjusted referring to images taken with the Infrared Camera (IRC) on board. The focus adjustment was made both at 6 and 40K. The in-orbit imaging performance at 6K was estimated to be diffraction limited at 7.3μm, a little worse than the laboratory measurements prior to the launch. It was slightly degraded to be approximately diffraction limited at 8μm at 40K as expected from the laboratory test, but the movement of the focus position was in the opposite sense to the ground test. The AKARI mission provided us data of the focus shift with temperature on orbit for the first time. We report an overview of the AKARI telescope system and the focus adjustment operations at 6 and 40K.

Citation Download Citation

T. Onaka, H. Kaneda, T. Wada, I. Sakon, Y. Ita, T. Takagi, and W. Kim "In-orbit focal adjustment of the AKARI telescope with and without liquid helium cryogen", Proc. SPIE 7010, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2008: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter, 70102X (12 July 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.787725

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available