| Date: | 2005-01-11 13:31:00 | |
| Sender: | Ludwig Combrinck <slrmail@dgfi.badw.de> | |
| Subject: | [SLR-Mail] No. 1292: SLR/LLR interference to optical telescopes | |
| Author: | Ludwig Combrinck | |
| Content: | ******************************************************************************** SLR Electronic Mail 2005-01-11 13:31:00 UTC Message No. 1292 ******************************************************************************** Author: Ludwig Combrinck Subject: SLR/LLR interference to optical telescopes Dear SLR/LLR community We are investigating the possibility of establishing a new Space Geodesy Facility at Sutherland, on the site of SAAO, the South African Astronomical Observatory. We have provided the management of SAAO with a draft proposal, and feedback indicates that there is concern of the green laser light getting into their optical telescopes. Several SLR stations are however located on astronomical sites and other stations may also have some input to provide on this. It is envisaged that a 1 meter LLR 400mJ green light and an SLR2000 be located on this site. The proposed site is in a shallow valley about 900 m from the nearest optical telescope, these range from 50cm to 11 meter(SALT, similar to HET at McDonald). There is no direct visibility between the optical and SLR sites. Previous discussions that I had with McDonald staff indicated that light pollution was not a problem. However, I need the SLR/LLR community to guide us in this by providing us with the benefit of your experiences. In addition, we need to quantify the amount of scattered light that could possibly enter a telescope tube if the optical telescope is pointed in such a way as to intercept the laser beam. Some laser/optics guru might be able to come up with this answer. Your comments and suggestions would be most welcome. Regards and thanks Ludwig +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Ludwig Combrinck Ph.D Programme Leader HartRAO Space Geodesy Programme PO BOX 443 Krugersdorp 1740 South Africa e-mail: ludwig@hartrao.ac.za Tel: +27 12 326-0742 Fax: +27 12 326-0756 IGS Regional Data Center for Africa URL: http:\www.hartrao.ac.zageodesygeodesy_index.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ From: slrmail@dgfi.badw.de ******************************************************************************** |