DAG - Eastern Anatolia Observatory - Telescope
Site: Erzurum - Turkey
State: under construction
Activityies:
Detail Design, Manufacturing, Pre-Assembly in Europe, Packing &Transport, Erection on Site, Commissioning and Testing activities
Date: 2014-2017
Client: Atatürk University of Astrophysics Research Telescope - ATASAM
Category: astronomy
Credits: EIE GROUP
The Eastern Anatolia Observatory
Overview:
DAG (Dogu Anadolu Gözlemevi, Eastern Anatolia Observatory) is a project fully funded by Turkish Ministry of Development and the Atatürk University of Astrophysics Research Telescope - ATASAM.
DAG will be a 4m class optical and infrared telescope and will be installed at an altitude of 3170m asl on the Erzurum Plateau, near the town of Erzurum, Eastern Anatolia, Turkey.
DAG will be provided with a 4m diameter primary mirror, a 0.76m secondary mirror and a tertiary one which will feed the telescope two Nasmyh foci.
The telescope will be provided with a system of active optics which will guarantee high image quality thanks to corrections to the deformations of the primary mirror, which will be very thin and cannot be fully rigid.
The DAG telescope will also be equipped with an adaptive optics system which will maintain the mirrors in the correct position during observation activities.
The main characteristics of the DAG Telescope:
In the course of 2014, the contract for the procurement of the DAG telescope was assigned to the Belgian AMOS, while EIE will operate as Nominated Sub-Contractor: EIE will provide the telescope steel structure and will be responsible for all plants and machined structures. Specifically, EIE will design and mount the Coudé tubes, the AZ frame, the AZ platforms, the intermediate structure, the pedestal, the Nasmyth platforms, the drive system housing and the center piece, the Serrurier truss, the top ring and the spiders.
The telescope structure will also be equipped with a series of devices like: telescope control system, AZ auxiliary drive, EL manual drive, hydraulic brake system, encoders, EL cable wrap, AZ and EL locking pins, hard stops, stairs allowing the access between the AZ and the Nasmyth platforms, EL shutter, stop switches interlocks, UPS and electrical installations and hard stops.
The project is now in its construction phase.
Within the end of 2015, the contract for the DAG Enclosure was assigned.
The Science with the DAG:
The DAG telescope will be equipped with a series of instruments which will offer a variety of observing modes, covering the optical and the infrared wavelength ranges spanning from broad band imaging to high resolution spectroscopy.
The following observations are possible with DAG:
• Observing high redshift galaxies;
• Stars formation;
• Solar System minor bodies studies;
• Galaxy studies;
• Cosmology studies;
• Planets studies.
Link to the DAG web page:
