中国科学院南京天文光学技术研究所机构知识库

The Antarctic Plateau is considered to be the best ground-based astronomical site on Earth. Compared with other middle latitude  observatories, the telescopes located in Antarctica have unique advantages in seeing a large fraction of clear nights, continuous  observing window in the polar night, and so on. China has operated several generations of telescopes in Antarctica, but has not  yet achieved multicolour simultaneous observation with tracking. Multi-band Surv e y Telescope (MST) is the first multicolour  simultaneous surv e y telescope in Antarctica. It adopts a Newtonian telescope structure which is different from other Antarctic  telescopes and is matched with a new alignment scheme suitable for the harsh environment of Antarctica. In addition, MST is  equipped with a defrosting indium tin oxide (ITO) window and a high-precision equatorial mount. This paper introduces the  optical design, mechanical structure, and analysis of the actual operation of MST in Antarctica. Since March 2022, MST has  been carrying out the observation normally in Zhongshan Station, and the operation of MST has provided a new experience  for the follow-up design and installation of Antarctic telescopes. We plan to further optimize the design and manufacture of  MST, and develop it as a standard model of small-aperture Antarctic telescopes for space debris observations and time-domain  surveys.