The optical alignment of the coronagraphic masks of SHARK-NIR: paving the way for exoplanets detection and characterization

SHARK-NIR is a coronagraphic camera with spectroscopic capabilities for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) currently in its AIV phase, and operates in the near-infrared regime between 0.96 µm to 1.7 µm. We describe the test bench for analyzing and integrating the coronagraphic masks, by reproducing the focal plane scale, the entrance pupil dimension, and the coronagraphic techniques as similar as possible to the final assembly. The alignment procedures and code developed in Python language evaluates if these methods are accurate enough to reach the design tolerances and contrast requirements.