The entrance of the accelerator tube in a large electrostatic accelerator imposes a strong lens that dominates the beam optics. The magnification of the lens is large because of the low injection energy, the high voltage gradient of the acceleration tube and the long distance to the terminal. In the absence of the acceleration, the magnification would produce an unacceptably large beam spot at the terminal. The tyranny of the lens is especially irksome when the accelerator is required to operate at a lower terminal voltage than the one corresponding to the nominal gradient at high voltage. One way around the difficulty, used in NEC Pelletron accelerators, is to insert a series of nylon and steel rods that short together units of the acceleration structure at the terminal leaving the ones near the entrance close to the nominal gradient for optimum transmission. This operation takes time and risks the loss of insulating gas. Another alternative used in the 25URC at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is to focus...