Engineering formulas for local and dome seeing

Lorenzo Zago (Home page)

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Abstract:

This article summarizes the seeing effects of the atmospheric turbulence found in the immediate vicinity of the telescope, namely that generated by the enclosure and the telescope itself. The main contributions from the telescope and the enclosure are elucidated and quantitative engineering parameterizations applicable to an actual telescope and observatory design are provided.

The author presented in 1995 a PhD dissertation[10] , which describes and discusses in a comprehensive manner the issues related to the interaction of a modern telescope with its local atmospheric environment. Several new notions and methods were described which allow a better understanding of the turbulent phenomena occurring near and inside different types of telescope enclosure. The knowledge acquired on these effects is then applied to new procedures for a global evaluation of telescope performance and contributes to the general progress of the engineering of telescope enclosures.

The present article presents a summary of the most useful expressions and engineering parameterizations of the various seeing effects.

 
 

• Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• SEEING
• Temperature structure coefficient
• Full Width Half Maximum
• Relationship of the temperature structure coefficient to the mean velocity and temperature fields
• The free convection case
• DOME SEEING
• The "steady local air" dome effect
• Dome seeing caused by a warmer dome floor
• Seeing caused by heat generation at the secondary mirror unit
• Mirror seeing in still air
• Mirror seeing in forced flow
• CONCLUSIONS
• SYMBOLS
• Bibliography
• About this document ...

Last updated: Aug 2010