Mount for continuously orienting a collector dish in a system adapted to perform both diurnal and seasonal solar tracking

摘要

A mount for continuously orienting a collector dish relative to the sun in a system adapted to perform both diurnal and seasonal solar tracking. The mount is characterized by a rigid, angulated axle having a linear midportion supporting a collector dish, and oppositely extended end portions normally related to the midportion of the axle and received in spaced journals. The longitudinal axis of symmetry for said midportion of the axle is coincident with a seasonal axis while the axes of the journals are coincident with a diurnal axis paralleling the earth's polar axis. Drive means are provided for periodically displacing the axle about the diurnal axis at a substantially constant rate, while other drive means are provided for periodically indexing the dish through 1 DEG about the seasonal axis, once during each of the earth's successive rotations about its polar axis, whereby the position of the dish relative to the axle is varied for accommodating seasonal tracking as changes in the angle of inclination of the polar axis occurs.