Antenna Pointing System Upgrade (J.Quick)

The current optical encoder couplings are known to have serious performance deficiencies. A suitable replacment coupling has been identified and a full new set of couplings are currently on order. As part of the integration of these couplings, it was felt that the current antenna pointing system was sorely in need of the following upgrades

• the use of a parameterised error map model, including explicit weather dependent refraction corrections,
• the use of two independent Declination optical encoders for redundancy and improved accuracy,
• the parametrisation of ambient temperature dependant errors.