Optical Alignment Method for the PRIME Telescope
Hibiki Yama, Daisuke Suzuki, Shota Miyazaki, Andrew Rakich, Tsubasa Yamawaki, Rintaro Kirikawa, Iona Kondo, Yuki Hirao, Naoki Koshimoto, Takahiro Sumi
Abstract
In this paper, we describe the optical alignment method for the Prime-focus-Infrared Microlensing Experiment (PRIME) telescope which is a prime-focus near-infrared (NIR) telescope with a wide field of view for the microlensing planet survey toward the Galactic center that is the major task for the PRIME project. There are three steps for the optical alignment: preliminary alignment by a laser tracker, fine alignment by intra- and extra-focal (IFEF) image analysis technique, and complementary and fine alignment by the Hartmann test. We demonstrated that the first two steps work well by the test conducted in the laboratory in Japan. The telescope was installed at the Sutherland Observatory of South African Astronomical Observatory in August, 2022. At the final stage of the installation, we demonstrated that the third method works well and the optical system satisfies the operational requirement.