Experimental study on the extension of nodal aberration theory to pupil-offset off-axis three-mirror anastigmatic telescopes

Abstract. The aberration fields of misaligned on-axis telescopes can be described by nodal aberration theory. However, traditional nodal aberration theory cannot directly apply to pupil-offset off-axis systems. In our previous work, the net aberration fields of pupil-offset off-axis two-mirror astronomical telescopes induced by lateral misalignments were investigated by extending nodal aberration theory to include pupil-offset off-axis telescopes with a system-level pupil coordinate transformation through simulation. An experimental study on the net aberration fields of pupil-offset off-axis three-mirror anastigmatic (TMA) telescopes induced by lateral misalignments is further presented. Specifically, the astigmatism and coma aberration fields as well as their inherent relations are analytically expressed, simulated, and quantitatively validated with a real pupil-offset off-axis TMA telescope. Meanwhile, the differences between the aberration fields of misaligned off-axis and on-axis TMA telescopes are revealed and explicated. Our work not only contributes to a deep understanding of the net aberration fields of pupil-offset off-axis TMA telescopes induced by lateral misalignments but also represent an important validation for the extension of nodal aberration theory to pupil-offset off-axis telescopes.

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