The design case - optical delay line
The case given to you is the design of the Optical Delay Line for the Very Large Telescope, VLT. The case is presented and supervised by the project team of TNO that has designed and realised the first VLT delay line. They will tell you about their achievement for this astronomical instrument. A field of opto-mechatronics where some very exciting instruments are developed. You and your colleagues are asked to start designing yourself and experience how to set up an opto-mechanical system from scratch.
The Very Large Telescope array (VLT) is the flagship facility for European astronomy at the beginning of the third Millennium. It is the world’s most advanced optical instrument, consisting of four Unit Telescopes with main mirrors of 8.2m diameter and four movable 1.8m diameter Auxiliary Telescopes. The telescopes can work together, in groups of two or three, to form a giant ‘interferometer’, the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer, allowing astronomers to see details corresponding to a much larger telescope.
