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Date: 08 Sep 2006 06:02:10
From: al
Subject: consumer telescopes @ 1550 nm


Hi - I'm working on a project to measure atmospheric turbulence using
transmissions from a
1550 nm laser and a receiver built around an off-the-shelf telescope
(like the Meade LX and RCX series). I'm trying to find out, roughly,
what the transmission losses are at this wavelength, and the Meade
technical guys don't seem to answer their telephones.

Does anyone out there have a ball park idea what the losses are for
these telescopes at this
wavelength ?

Thanks
Alan

p.s. I'm trying to build a simpler version of the instrument described
in

http://www.dur.ac.uk/g.d.love/downloadable/slodar2005.pdf





 
Date: 08 Sep 2006 09:17:29
From: Don't Be Evil
Subject: Re: consumer telescopes @ 1550 nm



al wrote:
> Hi - I'm working on a project to measure atmospheric turbulence using
> transmissions from a
> 1550 nm laser and a receiver built around an off-the-shelf telescope
> (like the Meade LX and RCX series). I'm trying to find out, roughly,
> what the transmission losses are at this wavelength, and the Meade
> technical guys don't seem to answer their telephones.
>
> Does anyone out there have a ball park idea what the losses are for
> these telescopes at this
> wavelength ?
>
> Thanks
> Alan
>
> p.s. I'm trying to build a simpler version of the instrument described
> in
>
> http://www.dur.ac.uk/g.d.love/downloadable/slodar2005.pdf

You could always use a Newtonian reflector (which only uses mirrors)
and have the mirrors recoated to reflect your wavelength as efficiently
as possible.

Greg



 
Date:
From: Martin Brown
Subject: Re: consumer telescopes @ 1550 nm


 
Date: 08 Sep 2006 13:46:30
From: William Hamblen
Subject: Re: consumer telescopes @ 1550 nm


On 2006-09-08, al <alankoivunen@hotmail.com > wrote:
> Hi - I'm working on a project to measure atmospheric turbulence using
> transmissions from a
> 1550 nm laser and a receiver built around an off-the-shelf telescope
> (like the Meade LX and RCX series). I'm trying to find out, roughly,
> what the transmission losses are at this wavelength, and the Meade
> technical guys don't seem to answer their telephones.
>
> Does anyone out there have a ball park idea what the losses are for
> these telescopes at this
> wavelength ?

The telescopes you mentioned have Al coatings on the mirrors and
glass corrector plates. The mirror may or may not have
additional dielectric coatings to increase reflectivity and the
corector plate will have antireflective coatings to increase
transmissivity in visual wavelengths, which have an effect
unknown to me on the infrared wavelength you want to use.
Aluminum apparently has good reflectivity, about 96%, at 1550
nm. You may want to consider newtonian telescopes instead of
the types you mentioned if a completely enclosed system is not
required. They are available off the shelf and there would be
less cost. Attachments would be to the side instead of at the
rear.

Bud


 
Date: 09 Sep 2006 14:38:25
From:
Subject: Re: consumer telescopes @ 1550 nm



I have a friend who was working on a similar project at 1064 and he had
a big problem with transmission, I believe the green plate glass
corrector was the primary culprit. Also, spherochromatism becomes a
problem so far from the design wavelength.