Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) Enclosure Ventilation

The Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) is a 10-meter aperture telescope located in Texas at the McDonald Observatory.  M3’s involvement included design and engineering of the enclosure ventilation louvers.  These louver were provided to ventilate the enclosure chamber.  M3 used a conceptual design based on an existing dome ventilation system to detail the steel ventilation louvers for the existing enclosure base. Sixteen louvers were to be installed so an economical modular design was developed for mass production. M3 detail drawings were used directly by the fabricator to build the louver modules. Bids from eight fabricators were received resulting in a very competitively priced louver. The louver installation was completed in April 2002.