Improvement of the pointing precision of the Tianma radio telescope with an inclinometer measurement system

To assure high pointing precision of the Tianma radio telescope (TMRT), new models based on a inclinometer measurement system are added to the classical pointing model. This involves four main tasks. Firstly, the inclinometer measurement system is set up and its precision is evaluated. Secondly, a feedback control strategy for pointing error for the turbulences of uneven azimuth track and thermal deformations of alidade is implemented. Thirdly, after removing the linear effect of uneven track, sine fitting inclinometer data obtains the model of nonlinear effect of azimuth-track-level unevenness. The nonlinear effect is less than ± 5 arc-sec. The azimuth angles associated with large pointing error show a good agreement with those corresponding to poor track unevenness. Finally, the TMRT inclinometers monitor the effect of thermal deformations of alidade on the pointing precision of elevation from stow position, to observing almost motionless radio source, to arbitrary postures of radio telescope. The measured data after subtracting other affected factors of inclinometer including intrinsic drift, azimuth-track unevenness, variation of the center of gravity have similar tendency with the simulated results of finite element model (FEM). Applying established real-time modified model to observe the radio source 2334 + 8226, the checking results show that the pointing precision improved 65%.