Controlling a telescope chopping secondary mirror assembly using a signal deconvolution technique

Abstract

We describe a technique for improving the response of a telescope chopping secondary mirror assembly by using a signal processing method based on the Lucy deconvolution technique. This technique is general and could be used for any systems, linear or nonlinear, where the transfer function(s) can be measured with sufficient precision. We demonstrate how the method was implemented and show results obtained at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory using different chop throw amplitudes and frequencies. No intervention from the telescope user is needed besides the selection of the chop throw amplitude and frequency. All the calculations are done automatically once the appropriate command is issued from the user interface of the observatory’s main computer.