Products

DFM Engineering can accommodate your specific requirements.
Inquire about custom sizes, specialized instrumentations or custom optical systems.

Satellite Tracking Telescopes

Satellite Trackers

Without a mount capable of high speed and great precision utilizing absolute position encoders, with a high natural resonant frequency, continuous accurate tracking of many satellites is not possible.

LEO Scope™ and LEO Comm™

The definitive Space Domain Awareness (SDA) telescope / camera with 26-inch aperture F/1.7 4.4-degree FOV providing optical surveillance rivaling the world's finest and most relied upon systems.

ATLAS OTA

Specifically designed to detect asteroids and provide warning of an impact with the Earth. Offering F/2 and 7.5-degree FOV with a modified 110 Megapixel CCD Schmidt Camera.

Prime Focus Instrument™ PFI™

Allows telescopes to perform wide field astronomy such as multi object photometry, super nova patrol, variable stars, planetary transits, occultations, orbital debris searches, asteroid searches, etc.

Double Horseshoe Mount w/ Hydrostatic Bearings

(Alt-Alt) Eliminates both the blind-spot at the zenith and the need to flip the telescope when it crosses the meridian. This mount offers fast tracking of debris targets in any direction across the sky.

Ximea sCMOS Camera

6144 X 6144 X 10 µm detector offers up to 46fps, 95% Quantum Efficiency, full well capacity above 110ke-, 12 and 16-bit modes, for asteroid searching and Space Situational Awareness (SSA) applications.

Standard Classical or RC Cassegrain Telescopes

CCT-16

Provides excellent pointing and tracking accuracy previously only available on larger telescopes. A 20 kg instrument load provides generous growth potential.

CCT-24

Our typical 0.5 & 0.6M telescopes offer a F/3 primary mirror with an effective ratio of F/8. Providing stiffness for smooth tracking and excellent accuracy.

CCT-32 & CCT-40

Our 0.8 & 1M support a 65kg instrument load using a structure that permits very fast movement with high natural frequencies and low moments of inertia.

CCT-50 and larger

Our 1.3M "Big-Iron" mount supports a 200kg instrument load of up to 100cm in length providing nearly unlimited instrumentation potential.

Custom Telescopes

Since 1979, DFM has worked closely with leading professional astronomers to customize telescopes for specific requirements and dedicated research.

Telescope Optics

Every Optical System is custom created to meet customer specifications. Our in-house optical facility manufactures and tests all mirrors 26" and larger.

Electro-Optical-Mechanical-Systems™ (EMOS™)

Beam Directors

Our custom-designed optical systems may take the form of a siderostat, or a Coude' telescope of Alt-Az, Alt-Alt, or equatorial configuration.

DIMM - Differential Image Motion Monitor

Our seeing monitor performs sky brightness, atmospheric transmission, and extinction coefficients measurements. Performs autoguiding and star centering functions. Offers full robotic operation.

Gimbals

A gimbal is a gimbal is a gimble? NO it's NOT! Tracking speed and payload have a huge impact on the motors, the mount, and controls. DFM offers all 3 configurations in many sizes for various applications.

Heliostats

DFM has provided numerous heliostats. We have developed a special polar alignment technique using a two mirror system to fold the light downward.

Light Detection and Ranging Components LIDAR

Our elevation-over-azimuth scanner design are used for remote sensing, including pollution monitoring and enforcement, fugitive dust detection, clear air turbulence, and meteorological research.

Siderostats & Coeleostats

These have been used for the JPL / Keck telescope testbed interferometer as well as on larger systems and provide extremely low jitter in the axis motion and in the mirror piston.

Instrumentation

Articulated Relay Eyepiece™

Allows handicapped access to the eyepiece by using a series of relay lenses and folding mirrors to reposition the focal plane for ADA compliance of public facilities.

Filter Wheel

Provides the option to rotate through (8) 50mm filters in one imaging session without having to switch between filters. Offers full robotic operation.

Guide Acquire Module

These modules provide autoguiding and star centering functions increasing your pointing accuracy by placing celestial objects in the center of the field.

Photometer

Using a single channel classical photo multiplier tube (PMT) of various types, in a housing connecting an aperture wheel, filter wheel, fabry lens and/or GAM.

Multiple Instrument Adapter™ (MIA)™

Allows up to 5 instruments to be mounted: N, S, E, W, and straight through. Holds the DFM filter changer. Comes with a networkable control system.

Slide Mirror

Allows selection between two different cameras, or camera and eyepiece. Allows direct imaging or fields viewing to verify and center an object.

Full Aperture Shutter

DFM's shutter's flawless performance over ten million operational cycles and counting is useful wherever a large shutter is required: CCD cameras, spectrographs, or giant telescopes with large beam sizes.

Smart Auto Guider™

Allowing for full robotic operation, the Smart Auto Guider™ can simultaneously support direct imaging and support a spectrograph.

Spectrograph

A remotely controlled optical system offering classical dispersion utilizing a decker, bilateral adjustable slit, collimator, filter wheel, gratings, and detector.

Filter Cassette System

Computer controlled research grade filter selection. Filter Changer unit with an 8-position filter cassette holding 125-mm X 125-mm X 9-mm thick filters.

X-Y Guider

A X-Y stage is typically needed to allow off axis guiding for long integrations (or exposures) when performing direct imaging. Custom designs available.

TCSGalil™

Provides a user-friendly interface to the telescope. Utilizing a PC, you have continual position display, status reporting, and an easy-to-use, menu-driven command set.