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On
Friday, September 16th, 2022 the Royal
Observatory Greenwich announced their astrophotography winners. The mosaic
image to the right is the
Galaxy category winner, taken with a Dream Astrograph. |
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The main reason this
image won the award was because the telescope captured the faint
remnants of a previous galactic collision that Sombrero had in
its past. |
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9.58 hours; 275min L, 100min each RGB. |
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"Hello Shane, I can't think of anyone who
has delved as deeply into the mechanics of telescopes as you." |
- Dream customer |
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"I went to bed at
about 10PM and I let it run all night without focusing. I blinked
through the images and focus did not change. Also,
I did all of my other
images by letting
it run through the night without focusing." |
- Dream Astrograph owner |
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Sombrero
galaxy taken with a 16" f3.75 Dream Astrograph by Utkarsh Mishra,
Michael
Petrasko & Muir Evenden. |
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16"
f3.75 Dream Astrograph |
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Faster f-ratio
Dream Hypergraphs are listed near the bottom half of page. |
The
only athermal
instruments
in the world that use such a high percentage of carbon fiber (95% of the weight of the telescope
structures without optics)
and mates those low-mass,
high stiffness athermal structures with highly engineered, lightweight
zeroDELTA
mirrors.
The entire system is optimized from the ground up for cutting
edge installed performance, eliminating countless
areas of performance
loss.
These are truly modern instruments with unrivaled consistent, long-term installed
performance
and the lowest possible maintenance. |

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The latest CMOS detectors have much smaller pixels
(3.76µm versus the typical 9µm pixels of the previous
generation of detectors). Dream and our existing customers don't
need to upgrade anything. Our optical instruments have always
achieved higher performance and we've always designed closer
to the diffraction limit. In 2020 alone we designed more than
a half a dozen optical systems ranging from 16" to 25"
apertures, with f-ratios from f2.95 to as fast as f1.35 and for
sensors from as small as 24mm x 36mm to as large as 95mm x 95mm. |
Roughly 90% of what Dream designs
& produces is custom. Contact
us to determine whether your project
can use an existing design, a slightly modified existing design
or requires something completely custom. We've been designing
& producing fast optical systems since 2003. Our lead optical
engineer has four decades of experience with fast systems. |
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IMX461 CMOS: 3.76µm pixels, 11656 x 8742, 55mm
image circle. |
Field Of View: 73.9' x 98.6' (2.0 deg²) |
Arc-seconds/pixel: 0.51 |
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OTA diameter - OD |
length |
focal length |
CFSC hybrid tube: 20.0" |
57" |
1525mm - f3.75 |
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lightweight secondary mirror |
weight - pounds |
single unit pricing |
6" |
less than 65 |
contact Dream |
100% illumination
of 55mm image circle - will work with IMX455 & IMX461 detectors |
this weight includes
focus, 4" coma corrector and FAST. |
clamshell rings are not required for
mounting, only a dovetail plate |
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Click above for additional photos
and information. |
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Click on the photo to the left
to see why this telescope does not need clamshell/mounting rings.
A direct connection to the mount is superior because there is
less chance for flexure, plus it gets the CoG of the telescope
closer to the mount; shorter lever arm means less bending. |
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Click here
to see images taken with a 16" Dream Astrograph. |
Click here
to see images taken with a 16" Dream Astrograph while still
here at Dream. |
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"Within
a temperature range of 10°C we see no measurable change in
focus. Also, there was no change in focus as a function of telescope
position." |
- Michael Schwartz, Tenagra Observatories, 16" f3.75 Dream Astrograph
owner.  |
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M81/M82 image below
shows the efficiency and quality of this telescope. Image was
taken in less than one full night, with a front-illuminated CCD
detector. |
16803 CCD detector: 9µm pixels, 4096
x 4096, 52mm image circle. |
Field Of View: 83.0' x 83.0' (1.9 deg²) |
Arc-seconds/pixel: 1.22 |
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One of Dream's 16" f3.75 instruments (using
old 16801 detector) was one of
a seven group previous NASA NEO search
& recovery project. At least one other group member was
using a 1m telescope, showing the extreme power, throughput &
reliability of Dream's philosophy of fully dealing with the traditional
issues of low stiffness & mirror
seeing.
Dream's instruments are work horses
that operate at the highest level; today, tomorrow and ten
years from now. |
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Click either photo (left or
right) to watch a video about the interferometry technology developed
for JWST and funded by NASA. Dream uses this technology to finish
its world-class
lightweight mirrors in house. |
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Click here
to see images taken with a 16" Dream Astrograph during test
out at Dream around 2010, then over 10 years later. |
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16"
f2.4 Dream Hypergraph |
OTA diameter - OD |
length |
focal length |
20" |
37" |
975mm - f2.4 |
space domain awareness |
satellite debris tracking |
406.4mm CA |
space domain awareness |
space situational awareness |
NASA NEO search & recovery |
secondary |
weight - pounds |
single unit pricing |
9.125" |
<65 |
contact Dream |
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IMX411 151Mp CMOS detector: 3.76µm pixels, 14192 x
10640, 66.7mm image circle. |
Field Of View: 140.9' x 188.1' (7.36 deg²) |
Arc-seconds/pixel: 0.79 |
These dedicated optical systems are optimized
for 100% illumination of the given detector. The Dream Hypergraphs
come with 90mm of back focus. |
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16"
f2.4 Dream Hypergraph |
OTA diameter - OD |
length |
focal length |
20" |
36.5" |
960mm - f2.4 |
space domain awareness |
satellite debris tracking |
400mm CA |
space domain awareness |
space situational awareness |
NASA NEO search & recovery |
secondary |
weight - pounds |
single unit pricing |
8.875" |
<63 |
contact Dream |
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IMX461 101Mp CMOS detector: 3.76µm pixels, 11656 x
8742, 55mm image circle. |
Field Of View: 117.6' x 156.6' (5.1 deg²) |
Arc-seconds/pixel: 0.79 |
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pricing, availability and
specifications subject to change without notice |
Copyright
© 2003-2025 Dream All Rights Reserved. |
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space domain awareness
(SDA), space Situational Awareness (SSA), Ball Aerospace, Lockheed
martin, Boeing space, Airbus defence & space, planewave instruments,
NASA JPL, NASA goddard, lightweight telescope, lightweight precision
optics, lightweight precision mirrors |