Primary mirror
The 100 square meter primary mirror is made of 78 near-hexagonal optical segments, almost identical to segments of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). All telescope optics are within proven dimensions and technologies, including physical and functional characteristics.
Telescope operation and control
The telescope will be controlled in real time on-sky, combining techniques successfully integrated in the Keck and VLT projects towards the end of the 20th century, while relying on the latest industrial and technological developments implemented in the ELT. The WST will be controlled to specification from the MOS focal surface; the subsequent IFS optical path includes the metrology and degrees of freedom necessary to adjust for differential perturbations, with limited crosstalk between the two foci, if any. As an option, the design readily includes an optional upgrade path allowing for seeing reduction – aka Ground-Layer Adaptive Optics or GLAO – at the coudé focus.
The telescope's optics
Issue #1 The WST Chronicle