Recent developments for the testing of Cherenkov Telescope Array mirrors and actuators in T\"ubingen

TL;DR

This paper reports on recent developments and testing of mirror control systems and actuators for the Cherenkov Telescope Array, highlighting progress at the Tübingen facility and plans for future production.

Contribution

It introduces new mirror control, alignment mechanics, electronics, and software tailored for CTA's medium-sized telescopes, along with testing results and future plans.

Findings

Successful prototype testing of mirror control systems

Development of optimized mechanics and electronics

Plans for large-scale mirror production

Abstract

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation Cherenkov telescope facility. It will consist of a large number of segmented-mirror telescopes of three different diameters, placed in two locations, one in the northern and one in the southern hemisphere, thus covering the whole sky. The total number of mirror tiles will be on the order of 10,000, corresponding to a reflective area of ~10^4 m^2. The Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in T\"ubingen (IAAT) is currently developing mirror control alignment mechanics, electronics, and software optimized for the medium sized telescopes. In addition, IAAT is participating in the CTA mirror prototype testing. In this paper we present the status of the current developments, the main results of recent tests, and plans for the production phase of the mirror control system. We also briefly present the T\"ubingen facility for mirror testing.