LSST Telescope Alignment Plan Based on Nodal Aberration Theory

The optical alignment of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is potentially challenging, due to its fast three-mirror optical design and its large 3.5 degrees field of view (FOV). It is highly advantageous to align the three-mirror optical system prior to the integration of the complex science camera on the telescope, which corrects the FOV via three refractive elements and includes the operational wavefront sensors. A telescope alignment method based on nodal aberration theory (NAT) is presented here to address this challenge. Without the science camera installed on the telescope, the on-axis imaging performance of the telescope is diffraction-limited, but the field of view is not corrected. The nodal properties of the three-mirror telescope design have been analyzed and an alignment approach has been developed using the intrinsically linear nodal behavior, which is linked via sensitivities to the misalignment parameters. Since mirror figure errors will exist in any real application, a methodology to introduce primary-mirror figure errors into the analysis has been developed and is also presented.