Optical Guidance Systems

Ritchey-Chretien Telescope Picture

Carbon Fiber XZe

Napa_Valley_264 Optical Guidance Systems (OGS) is now providing Ritchey-Chretien optical tube assemblies (OTAs) manufactured from our new extremely thermally stable and lightweight diamond-patterned Tuned Carbon Fiber XZe™. This newly OGS engineered Tuned Carbon Fiber XZe™ material is spun and layered to rigid specifications. Only OGS OTAs combine XZe with magnesium internal and aluminum external structure and ceramic optical substraight to become one thermally stable lightweight unit. Additionally, our XZe tube material will efficiently reflect IR light, this, keeping the telescope cooler during the day. (The very thin nickel exterior diamond pattern plating is for appearance and solar heat reflection.)

This specific OGS material is so good that it was tested and approved by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for vacuum environment and space flight use. OGS used this XZe material when constructing JHU/APL’s new solar telescope for balloon borne use. If it was good enough for this application, you can be assured it will perform flawlessly for you!
Napa valley telescope

Brief History:

Starting 18 years ago, OGS manufactured our phase-one 12.5″; those OTAs consisted of ¼ wave Pyrex® optics installed in a fiberglass tube. The phase-two OTAs were manufactured from near-zero expansion 1/30 wave R.M.S. optics installed in a professional painted aluminum tube. Phase-three incorporated lightweight magnesium parts, Invar® metering rods, secondary electronic focusers, and cooling fans. Bringing us to the year 2003, the OGS systems development team has taken our time-tested OTAs to yet higher ground with our new OGS R-C XZe™ OTAs.

Due to the intricate hand-assembly, intensive optical testing, and guaranteed collimation of each OGS telescope, the delivery times of these telescopes must be quoted at time of orde