search site
here:

NEWS: ODK20 Telescope Installed at ESO, Chile
Added 17 Jan 2011

Orion Optics UK are pleased to publish this photo of the installation of our ODK20 telescope at the European Southern Observatory (Paranal) Chile.

ESO, the European Southern Observatory, home of the VLT (Very Large Telescope) and the planned E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope) is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive astronomical observatory. ESO provides state-of-the-art research facilities to astronomers and is supported by Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Several other countries have expressed an interest in membership.

The telescope is being used at the ESO site in Chile for advanced purposes in astronomy and Dr. Richard Wilson of Durham University said "The new telescope produced much interest and admiration from astronomers and technical people at ESO, even though they are used to playing with much bigger ones(!)" Dr. Wilson went on to say:  "The Orion 0.5m ODK telescopes are being incorporated into our 'SLODAR' atmospheric turbulence profiling systems, which support developments in astronomical imaging with adaptive optics at the Paranal and La Palma observatories. The new telescopes provide the combination of  good optical quality and mechanical stability required for our application. The  carbon fiber open-truss design reduces weight and also avoids any small temperature gradients within the telescope tube. This is particularly important for our application, which is very sensitive to any thermal effects within the telescope itself." 

Durham University is one of the UK's leading centres for astronomical research with world-class groups working in a wide range of fields covering the observational, theoretical and instrumentation aspects of astronomy.

Come and see the world debut of the ODK20 at Astrofest 2011 in London on 4th and 5th February where we will be taking orders for production models.

Photo: Copyright Tim Butterley / European Southern Observatory.

Click thumbnail to view more images

Find out more from these links:

http://astro.dur.ac.uk

http://www.eso.org/public

On these pages we will post any News, Information, New Items or product Updates, etc.to the site to give you advance notice of changes made to pages througout the site.

We include inks (if applicable) to the respective page(s), etc. so you can check it out quickly.

Check the NEWS Box on the Home Page for a brief notification of changes.

Page 1 - 2011 Read News Items from 2010