MAORY for ELT: preliminary mechanical design of the support structure

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Abstract
MAORY (Multi Conjugate Adaptive Optics RelaY) is one of the four instruments for the ELT (Extremely Large Telescope) approved for construction. It is an adaptive optics module able to compensate the wavefront disturbances affecting the scientific observations, achieving high strehl ratio and high sky coverage. MAORY will be located on the straight-through port of the telescope Nasmyth platform and shall re-image the telescope focal plane to a wide field camera (MICADO) and a possible future second instrument. A trade-off study among different mechanical design options for the main mechanical structure has been carried out. This paper outlines an overview of the mechanical design that gives a better result in terms of stability, vibrations and manufacturing.