The Penn State spectroscopic survey telescope

A design is presented for a telescope which is large enough to obtain spectra to about 20th magnitude in under 20 minutes' integration time and which is devoted to spectroscopic surveys in dark time to map the distribution of galaxies and quasars in the universe. During bright time the telescope will be used to monitor large numbers of G-M stars with high-resolution spectroscopy to search for solarlike activity. The instrument consists of 73 segments, each of 0.9 m diameter and 26 m radius of curvature. The effective aperture exceeds 7 m. The focal plane system can track objects for 40 minutes, and sky coverage of 48 deg is obtained by using a fixed tilt for the primary and making the entire telescope and dome rotatable. The focal plane system is lightweight and precisely pointable because spectrographs are coupled to the focus by fiber optic cables.