Florida Institute of Technology's F.W. Olin Physical Science Building in Melbourne, Florida now hosts the largest telescope in the state, a DFM 32-inch F/8 Cassegrain with Ritchey-Chretien optics.

A grant from the National Science Foundation for research instrumentation helped fund the 32” Classical Cassegrain telescope which was manufactured by DFM Engineering. Originally the request was for a 24” telescope, but a gift from an anonymous Brevard County donor has enabled FIT to increase the size from a 24” to a 32” telescope.

The DFM installation team consisted of Mark S. Kelley, Don Groff and Justus Drake.

Don and Justus "hand delivered" the new DFM 32” computer controlled telescope on October 31.

The big crane installation day was Thursday, November 1st.

Mark Kelley, coordinated the telescope installation and testing of all the instruments FIT purchased.

Assembly and installation of the new telescope was efficient since DFM thoroughly assembled and tested the telescope before delivery.

On site reassembly was routine.

After the telescope optics were installed in the mirror cells, the DFM team proceeded with adjustments to the primary drives and the testing of all peripheral instrumentation.

The final testing phase began with finding focus in the main optics and alignment of the finder telescope.

• CCT-32 Telescope

• Telescope Control System (TCS)