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Dr.
Frank Melsheimer
DFM Engineering, Inc.
1035 Delaware Avenue, Unit D
Longmont, Colorado 80501
USA
Dear Frank,
It
has been a little over a year since DFM retrofitted
our 1.6m telescope here at mont Mégantic
and I want to let you know how much we are pleased
with the result.
Our
25 year-old Perkin Elmer telescope had been performing
rather well under extreme climatic conditions
(from -30°C in January to +30°C in July)
but some of its mechanical parts were starting
to show signs of wear in recent years. The ‘manual’
TCS console was also becoming less reliable and
replacement parts for its electronics were almost
impossible to find. This resulted in observing
time losses at the telescope for our students
and staff. Based on my observing experiences at
CTIO and MDM, where I became familiar with your
company’s work, I strongly suggested to the
observatory’s scientific board that DFM be
contracted for a major upgrade of our telescope.
Let me tell you that we are very glad we did!
Right from the start,
every aspect of the retrofit was handled smoothly
and professionally - from Mark Kelley’s initial
visit to the observatory in January 2000, to the
actual retrofit in May 2001, and the one-year
follow-up service to iron out the very few minor
problems we encountered. I was particularly impressed
with Mark Kelley’s and Ian Huss’ skillful
‘operation’ on our ‘patient’.
Within a week, major mechanical and electronic
components were replaced with modern sturdy parts.
New motors and encoders were installed on all
three axes (RA, Dec, and focus), the instrument
rotator was also motorized and encoded, and a
new computer controlled TCS system was installed.
All in all, the telescope was down for 5 days
(nights) only, of which the last two were used
to refine the pointing model.
For the last 14
months we have been able to appreciate the benefits
of DFM’s fine work. The telescope absolute
pointing has improved with an overall accuracy
better than 10 arc seconds. The telescope tracking
is smoother than before, in fact, our autoguider
does not have to work as much as before; typical
PSF of stars on unguided 20 minutes exposures
are about 2-3 arcsec. Finally, the TCS system
is fast and easy to use. The net result of this
upgrade is a 10-15% gain in efficiency of the
telescope observing time. Given that we get about
120 clear nights a year at our observatory (typical
climate for northeast america), it’s like
getting an extra 15 clear nights every year -
time enough to complete one or two more scientific
projects. That’s a real bonus!
From the astronomers,
the students, the night assistants, and myself,
congratulations for a job well done! It has been
a pleasure doing business with you (and we hope
to do some more in the future).
Best
Regards,
Robert Lamontagne
Resident astronomer
Observatoire du mont Mégantic
Université de Montréal
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