Physics – Optics
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21715706s&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #157.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Physics
Optics
Scientific paper
Aligned telescopes either produce third-order Seidel aberrations or are specifically designed to balance them out. These Seidel aberrations manifest in the field as patterns of point spread functions. When optics are misaligned, breaking the axial symmetry of the telescope, another set of generic third-order aberration patterns arise, one each for coma, astigmatism, and curvature of field, and two for distortion. Each misalignment pattern is characterized by a two dimensional vector, which is in turn a linear combination of the mirror tilts and decenters. For an N-mirror telescope, 2(N-1) patterns must be measured to keep the telescope aligned. Common practice for two mirror telescopes is to use misalignment coma and astigmatism patterns to align the secondary mirror. However, for three mirror telescopes, it will be necessary to either measure the curvature of field and one of the distortion patterns, or alternately to measure smaller fifth order misalignment patterns in order to maintain alignment.
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation through a Graduate Research Fellowship.
Schechter Paul L.
Sobel Rebecca
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