Open issues

This brief presentation of some case histories of telescope projects illustrates how the state of the art in the engineering of astronomical observatories is not up to the knowledge level which should be required for such complex systems.

Trials, errors and design corrections have been the consequence of missing knowledge on a number of still unclear and controversial issues related to wind, seeing and the local atmospheric turbulence, in particular:

• The relationship of dome and mirror seeing with local ventilation and temperature parameters.
• The effect of the atmospheric surface layer and the optimal height of a telescope pier.
• The characterization of the high frequency mechanical turbulence acting on a telescope exposed through the enclosure slit.
• The pressure field on the primary mirror and its relationship with optical aberrations.

1. To provide a larger base of experimental data characterizing the telescope environment in several different types of enclosures.
2. To derive methods for parameterizing the seeing and guiding performance of a telescope in relationship to the main variables which characterize the local atmospheric environment, thereby contributing to the development of concurrent design approaches which will allow the design of telescopes and enclosures on a more rational base than it has been the case in the past.