Scanning pentaprism test for the GMT 8.4-m off-axis segments

The scanning pentaprism system for testing the 8.4 m off-axis segments for the Giant Magellan Telescope has recently been completed. The system uses a fiber source and a carriage mounted pentaprism to scan a 40 mm collimated beam across the surface of the segment under test. Since the scanning beam is parallel to the optical axis of the parent mirror, it comes to focus on a detector at the telescope's prime focus, where displacement of the spot is proportional to the slope error. A second collimated beam from a stationary reference pentaprism is used to compensate for any changes in the relative positions of the optical components during testing. The optical components are suspended over the mirror on a rail system that can be rotated so that scans can be made across any diameter of the segment. The test is capable of measuring wavefront slope errors to 1 μrad rms, adequate to verify that power, astigmatism, coma, and other low-order aberrations are small enough to be corrected easily at the telescope with the segment's active support system.