The 700mm 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 700mm 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-300 heavy duty mount which is based on a strong backlash free precision gear drive and absolute encoders. This system is complete with all the features typically found in research grade instrumentation and is constructed to industrial norms of ISO9001 with a significant amount of over-engineering to provide a high level of quality to guarantee a very long service life.

The GE-300 mount is a gear driven mount that is free of backlash, the backlash compensation is self adjusting and will keep the mount free of backlash for life. This mount has oversized servo motors and high resolution absolute encoders to ensure the mount is free from periodic error. The worm wheel is made from self lubricating bronze and has a hardened stainless steel worm gear. This exhaustive design approach ensures dead accuracy throughout the GE-300’s lifetime. There is also an option to have direct drive motors installed.