* Astronomy

USNO's Newest Telescope is Operational

The U.S. Naval Observatory's Robotic Astrometric Telescope (URAT) has achieved successful "Initial Operational Capability" at the Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station (NOFS) in Arizona The Observatory's newest telescope is actually derived from two existing USNO instruments. The mounting for the 1970's-vintage 24-inch Cassegrain reflecting telescope in Washington was heavily modified for autonomous operation, and a special moving counterweight mechanism was fabricated by the USNO Instrument Shop to compensate for the boil-off of liquid nitrogen used to cool the camera detectors during an observing session. A new optical tube assembly was built around the old 8-inch "red lens" (which mapped the sky between 1998 and 2004 from Cerro Tololo and the Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station, producing the USNO CCD Astrograph Catalogue, or UCAC) and the 300- pound "4-shooter" camera.
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