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Calibration

Each inclinometer was moved to the TMU and oriented with the axis to be tested perpendicular to the elevation axis. The INCLINE logger task was started as described above, and the telecope was moved in elevation and allowed to settle. The stepsize used was initially 1" and the telescope moved over a range of a few arcseconds. This yields a trace like that shown in Fig.1. Steps of 10 arsceconds produced Fig.2 and analysis of the relationship between elevation offset in arcseconds and inclinometer output in millivolts (Fig.3) yields the scaling factor for that axis (20.2 +- 0.1 mV/").

The SERVO noise is clearly seen in Fig.1; it has a period of 3 and an amplitude of about 1/3", which is the encoder resolution. More accurate scales may be achieved using faster sampling rates, longer sample times and larger ranges of elevation, but it is unlikely that the resulting scales will change much. However, plans are afoot to rederive the scales to higher accuracy, and, simultaneously, to quantify the linearity of the inclinometer-encoder combination.



Iain Coulson
Thu Mar 13 13:57:23 HST 1997