A Research on the Gravity Deformation of Delingha 13.7m Telescope

Based on digital photogrammetric measurements, the antenna panels of the Delingha 13.7m radio telescope are adjusted to make the main dish have an optimal paraboloidal surface at the elevation of 52∘, thus the overall antenna efficiency is optimized for different observing elevations. Observations indicate that the aperture efficiency of the telescope has been improved approximately twice in comparison with the antenna panels adjusted on the basis of theodolite measurements. According to the results of the measurements at different elevations, the models of antenna gravity deformation are built, including the displacement and tilt angle of the subreflector, as well as the focal length and surface error of the main reflector, as functions of elevation angle. In the process of modeling the gravity deformation of the main dish, instead of the direct calculation method, the least square fitting on the measured surface errors at different elevation angles is adopted, in order to reduce the effect of measurement errors on the accuracy of the model.