A dual-mirrored version of the MST, the Schwarzschild-Couder Telescope (SCT), is proposed as an alternative type of medium telescope. The SCT’s two-mirror optical system is designed to better focus the light for greater imaging detail and improved detection of faint sources. In collaboration with the SST-2M and MST groups and institutes in Germany, Italy, Japan and Mexico, institutes in the United States have been the pioneers of the SCT design since 2006.
The SCTs have improved angular resolution as a result of a smaller point spread function (PSF) and the very large number of camera pixels (>11000), based on silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), covering approximately 8 degree field of view. Both the 9.7 m diameter primary and 5.4 m secondary mirrors are segmented and have active alignment. The SCT uses the same positioner as the MST and the camera technology developed for the SCT is also used in the SST-2M GCT. The main specifications of the SCT are in the below table.