APM Telescopes was founded by Markus Ludes in 1990. Since that time APM’s core fundamentals of consistent high product quality have seen it become a frequent supplier to professional users in the Astronomy and Science communities worldwide.
APM manufacture the world’s largest range of Apochromatic Refractor telescopes. Our partners have included Massimo Ricarrdi and the late Thomas M. Back (Lens Designs), LZOS (Lens Manufacture), Matthias Wirth (Tube Designs) and Starlight Instruments (Focusers) to name but a few of the Astronomical communities best who contribute to what makes APM Telescopes such superb instruments.
Over this time APM has expanded its Telescope products to include large observatory class Reflectors and mounts in addition to our famous range of Refractors. We have also been involved in the development of Solar Observing equipment such as Coronado and Lunt Solar Systems, whom Markus Ludes is a founding partner.
APM Professional Telescopes Referenzen
350mm Apochromat, South Korea
This giant and unique telescope was built for the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) of South Korea. The MSIP installed it in the public observatory of the national science museum. The total time for contructing and delivering this 350mm f/12 Triplet apochromatic refractor was 15 months.
80cm F/10 Ritchey Chrétien, Balkanabat (Turkmenistan)
APM Professional Telescopes installed this 80cm AltAz Ritchey Chrétien Cassegrain Telescope on top of a new library in the city Balkanabat in Turkmenistan. The telescope has a focal ratio of F/10, nasmyth focus and rotator and was delivered including accessories. It is used for work with students as well as for guided tours for the public.
10″F/3 ASA Astrograph on ASA DDM60 pro Direct Drive Mount, Beijing (China)
The telescope is an Astrograph on DDM60 Mount from ASA – compiled and configured by APM Telescopes. It has fast focal ratio and is manufactured of sandwich carbon fibre. Based on the uncompromisingly optical design by Dipl. Phys. Philipp Keller, Germany, the lenses which are used correct the field of the largest CCD arrays popular right now. The ASA DDM60 mount comes with all the features you would expect of a professional telescope mount! The Telescope is part of the National Astronomical Observatories China (NAOC).
25cm Apochromat, Education Center (Japan)
These large apochromats were delivered from APM Telescopes and the mechanics built by the japanese telescope manufacturer Nishimura.
80cm Ritchey Chrétien, Yanggu (Korea)
Another Alt-azimutal mounted telescope that we installed in the centre of Korea, in a little town called Yanggu.
30cm Apochromat, Shanghai (China)
The observatory is in Su Zhou City near Shanghai, China, it belongs to Suzhou astronomical association. The observatory is face to astronomical fans and many common people. Some schools may let their students to go to visit and learn astronomical knowledge. The telescopes is also used by astronomical amateurs, which will take many astro photos.
1m Ritchey Chrétien, Shandong University at Weihai (China)
The Telescope is part of the National Astronomical Observatories China (NAOC).
12″ Super Bino-Apochromat, China
This is the world’s largest and most powerful Binocular Apochromatic Telescope (two APM-LZOS 304 mm f/7.5 apochromats on our heavy weight GE 300 mount). The back side of the binocular is designed to be used in two ways. As shown on the pictures it can be used as a giant binocular. This binocular attachment can be taken off, and replaced by straight extensions converting this binocular into 2 parallel mounted Apo refractors for standard use and imaging. The binocular design allows also to take 1 or the 2 tubes of the big rotating ring and use them as single telescopes on different mounts.
1m Prime Focus Wide Field Telescope, Urumqi Observatory (China)
The Telescope is part of the National Astronomical Observatories China (NAOC).
Project Info Telescope Blueprints
80cm Ritchey Chrétien, Beijing (China)
This telescope has been delivered for the Tsingua University, who have an observatory around 150km northeast of Beijing. Also, another 50cm telescope has been delivered inbetween. The Telescope is part of the National Astronomical Observatories China (NAOC)
1m Ritchey Chrétien, Lulin Observatory (Taiwan)
We have supplied new optics, controll system and software for this telescope (as it was upgraded from an old 1m telescope) We have also been visiting them several times to help them on the other telescopes. With this telescope an asteroid has been detected lately. Below you can get an impression of the perfect seeing conditions that can be observed in Taiwan mountains. We measured values of better than 1″ FWHM several times.
Lulin Observatory, Graduate Institute of Astronomy, National Central University
Project Info Telescope Blueprints
60cm Ritchey Chrétien for the Hampshire Astronomical Group (United Kingdom)
The Hampshire Astronomical Group got a 600mm F/8 Ritchey Chrétien Telescope on APM German Equatorial GE 300 Goto Mount from APM Telescopes.
8 × 8″ Robotic Astrographs, University of Barcelona (Spain)
This powerful astrophotographic instrument actually consists of an array of eight 8″ f/3 Astrographs from OS. The mount is a modified direct drive mount GE-300 from APM with torque Motor’s and Renishaw Absolute Encoders. The first telescope will be located in Tenerife and operated by the university of Barcelona (financed by the Qatar foundation). Two more telescopes identical in construction will be installed in New Mexico (USA) and Urumqi (China).
60cm Ritchey Chrétien, Cologne (Germany)
The public observatory in Cologne has a new telescope! APM Telescopes delivered and installed a 24″ Ritchey Crétien with optical set from LOMO on an impressively swung pier. The tube was manufactured by APM’s business partner Matthias Wirth and perfectly stable mechanics is assured by the use of APM’s heavy-weight mounting GE-300 together with a Little Foot Goto controller.
50cm Ritchey Chrétien on DDM160, Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
Three telescopes were ordered by the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Each of the Ritchy Chrétien Systems has 500mm aperture – two with f/15 and one with f/8 focal ratio. The telescopes were installed abroad in South Africa, Australia and Argentina. Another telescope was set to africa before.
90cm Ritchey Chrétien, Uppsala (Sweden)
This telescope has been delivered to the Angström Lab in Uppsala (Sweden). Right now it is the second largest telescope in Sweden. This telescope is an improved Version of the prototype Pollux telescope and is Alt-Azimutal mounted and uses field derotators. A tertiary Nasmyth mirror can be used to switch (computer controlled with a servomotor) between 2 focus positions on the right side or on the left side of the mount.
http://www.astro.uu.se/grundutb/wt/
90cm Ritchey Chrétien, Falera (Switzerland)
This Alt-Azimutal telescope has been installed in May, 2007 and is already running prefectly.
80cm Ritchey Chrétien, University of Vienna (Austria)
This telescope has been installed in December 2002 in Vienna, Austria. It is in the northern dome of the University-Observatory and is one of the largest telescopes in Austria. The telescope is used for student work and some research programs, though it is limited through the bad sky conditions in the center of a large city.
http://astro.univie.ac.at/g-vlt/#c91145
80cm Ritchey Chrétien of the Max Valier Observatory, Bozen (Italy)
End of May 2002 we have installed this 80cm telescope in Italy at a town in the alpes. The observatory is at an altitude of 1350m with a very nice view on the mountains and is a very dark observing site. The seeing was also very nice during our tests. Under quite good seeing conditions we could measure the blind tracking performance (without autoguider) and reached a unparalleled 0.25arc seconds in 10 Minutes. The telescope can make calibration runs on some internal reference marks and can be used remotely.
http://www.astrooptik.com/Projekte/MaxValier.htm
80cm Ritchey Chrétien, Ethno Cosmology Museum (Lithuania)
in the Year 2008 APM Telescopes installed the largest Teleskope in Lithuania, a 800mm Ritchey Chretien, equatorial Fork Mounted in the Ethno Cosmology Museum near Vilnius for public observations and Students teaching.
Moletai Astronomical Observatory
Project Info Telescope Blueprints Reference Letter
1.2m Cassegrain, Trebur (Germany)
This telescope is in use now since more than 7 years and a lot of very accurate measurements on asteroids have been performed with this instrument, although the observing site near Frankfurt, a major German city, is quite light polluted.
APM GE-300 Direct Drive Mount, ATLAS Observatories, University of Hawaii
APM Professional Telescopes, together with its partner Lunt Engineering USA, delivered two APM GE-300 Direct Drive Mountings to the ATLAS Observatories on the Islands of Hawaii. At two observatories sites of the Institute for Astronomy (one on Haleakala, Maui, the other on Mauna Kea, Big Island), the heavy APM GE-300 mounting with a Linux OS based controller is set up as an equatorial pier version, each to carry a 0.5m Schmidt Telescope. These robotic telescopes will seach the night sky for dangerous asteroids.
ATLAS Observatories, University of Hawaii
APM GE-300 Direct Drive Mount (Fork Version), Robotic Telescopes, Qatar Foundation
The Qatar Foundation instructed APM Professional Telescopes with the design, manufacture, assembly and onsite installation of three robotic astronomical observatories for Qatar Exoplanet Survey (QES). The first GE-300 Direct Drive Mount with a Windows OS based controller, carrying 8 telescopes for CCD imaging in a fork construction, is located in New Mexico (USA), two other telescope arrays will be delivered including 4.25m Astroshell Domes to the Teide (Teneriffa) and Urumqi (China).
1m Ritchey Chrétien, Muscat University (Oman)
The Muscat University of the Sultanat Oman ordered and got delivered from APM Telescopes in 2010 a 1m Alt-AZ Ritchey Chrétien telescope, which will be used on a movable trailer for observations in the Desert of Oman for teaching the stutents in astro physics.
60cm Ritchey Chrétien, Oklahoma State University (USA)
This Telescope project was a cooperation between APM-Telescopes/Germany and Optical Guidance System, OGS (USA). It was delivered to the H.S. Mendenhall Observatory at Oklahoma State University in 2007. This is the largest telescope in the state Oklahoma.
Oklahoma State University, Physics Department
50cm Ritchey Chrétien on DDM160, Provincia de San Juan (Argentina)
The telescope was installed for the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) and delivered primarily to the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center in Poland.
50cm Ritchey Chrétien on DDM160, Coonabarabran (Australia)
The telescope was installed for the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia and delivered primarily to the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center in Poland. Near the telescope lies the 3.9m diameter Anglo Australian Telescope (AAT).
50cm Ritchey Chrétiens on DDM160, Cape Town (South Africa)
The two telescopes were installed for the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) and delivered primarily to the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center in Poland. Near both telescopes lies the huge 9.8m diameter Southern African Large Telescope (SALT).
South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO)
1m Ritchey Chrétien, Sedona – Arizona (USA)
The telescope was installed in March 2012 the city of Sedona, Arizona.
1.2m Prime Focus Wide Field Telescope, Ural State University Ekatarinburg (Russia)
The Astronomical Observatory of the Ural State University is located in the village of Sloboda Pervouralsk town, near the station Kourovka. The 1.2 meter telescope was purchased by the observatory of the Ural State university in 2009 within the limits of the innovative program for education development. The unique combination of a modern control system, high-quality optics of the telescope and the equipment allows to conduct researches and to educate experts in the astronomy, spectroscopy, ecological monitoring of the atmosphere and IT technology areas.
Astronomy Geo Sciences, Ural Federal University
About Project Info Reference Letter