ALT-ALT Double Horseshoe Mount with Hydrostatic Bearings 

This non-traditional telescope mount was originally developed by DFM Engineering for the low-latitude location of India Institute of Astrophysics.  The Equatorial mount for low latitude is nearly the same as an Altitude over Altitude (ALT-ALT) mount which eliminates both the blind-spot at the zenith (ALT-AZ) and the need to flip the telescope when it crosses the meridian.  

NASA chose this 20,000 pound fast-tracking telescope for use at Ascension Island near the equator to fill gaps in their debris tracking system.  An explanation of why the ALT-ALT mount is the ideal telescope mount for tracking of artificial satellites (compared to ALT-AZ and equatorial mounts) is detailed in Dr. Frank Melsheimer's article. 

Satellite Tracking is increasing in importance with every passing year as record numbers of satellites are being launched.  With a million plus satellites proposed to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) database, if launched, these proposed satellites will pose an enormous risk of a catastrophic collisions in space.  Space Situational Awareness (SSA), utilizing optical ground stations like the 1.3m NASA Meter Class Autonomous Telescope (MCAT) on Ascension Island, will become increasingly critical to preserving humanity's access to space.

This mount offers fast tracking of debris targets in any direction across the sky in low, medium, and geosynchronous Earth low eccentricity orbits (LEO, MEO, GEO), as well as elliptical medium Earth and geosynchronous transfer orbits (MEO and GTO, respectively) and Molniya orbits. With a larger telescope aperture and a sensitive camera, smaller satellites or pieces of debris are able to be observed orbiting the Earth. MCAT's sensors provide unrivalled positioning accuracy of small, dim and far objects for Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and space control during the day and night.  With high fidelity tracking, actions in space are captured in detail.  NASA reports detection sensitivity down to 1cm diameter at LEO and 10cm at GEO - MCAT makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the space orbital debris environment.

DFM's ALT-ALT Double-Horseshow mount can also be adapted to smaller apertures variants, including use with DFM's revolutionary fast wide-field LEO Scope™, which is optimized for autonomous use, scaled deployment, and offers world-class Pointing, Acquisition, and Tracking (PAT).   This 0.7m variant can be ruggedized for off-road use, combined with the fast and easy setup of the ALT-ALT mount, to provide a exquisite long-range portable imaging system that can be used practically anywhere!