The 500mm tube assembly is built to professional standards and features a kinematic mirror cell which together with a Serrurier truss ensure perfect alignment of the optics no matter where the telescope is pointing. The instrument is also equipped with a motorised secondary mirror focuser and motorised dust covers. This also allows for robotic operation where desired. The entire system is carefully modelled with FEA to ensure proper operation. The standard optics are Supremax with Schott glass in the corrector, higher grade substrates can be provided upon special request.

The APM 500mm CDK (Corrected Dall Kirkham or option of Ritchey Chretien) is a professional grade telescope that comes as a complete package with the new APM GE-100 direct drive mount.This system is complete with all the features typically found in research grade instrumentation and is con-structed to industrial norms of ISO9001 with a significant amount of over-engineering to provide a high level of quality and a very long service life.

The GE-100 mount is a direct drive mount that is free of back-lash, and powered by oversized torque motors, these are pre-cisely operated with the aid of high resolution absolute en-coders that ensure the mount is free from periodic error and does not need guiding in practically any situation. This exhaustive design approach ensures dead accuracy throughout the GE-100’s lifetime