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N. Zacharias (USNO), U. Laux (Tautenburg Observatory), C. de Vegt (Hamburg Observatory)
A new optical design for an astrometric 1-meter telescope is presented. The modified Richter-Slevogt system utilizes a double corrector plate and 2 mirrors to provide a flat focal surface of about 3 degree diameter. With the secondary mirror mounted to the corrector plates there will be no diffraction spikes around bright stars. With about 10 CCDs (2.7k by 6k) and robotic operation a 2-fold overlap of an entire hemisphere could be accomplished in 1 year, aiming at 10 mas positional accuracies for stars in the 14 to 18 mag range with a limiting magnitude of about 20. Such a project would extend the current optical reference frame with a direct link to extragalactic sources and would significantly improve the proper motions of faint stars. The design is equally applicable to a multi-bandpass photometric survey. The costs for a complete instrument is in the order of one million dollar.