Optical alignment and test of Wide-Field/Planetary Camera-II

The second generation Wide-Field/Planetary Camera (WF/PC-II) for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was modeled to access the impact of manufacturing, alignment, and environmental tolerances on performance. This analysis showed that the lateral registration of the image of the optical telescope assembly (OTA) pupil to the surface providing the spherical correction must be aligned and maintained through launch to 50 microns; WF/PC-I was an order of magnitude less sensitive. Inherited WF/PC-I hardware was subjected to new WF/PC- II environmental tests. As a result WF/PC-II was reconfigured to ensure on-orbit performance: the focus mechanism was removed to increase stability through launch and on- orbit, and four formerly fixed mirrors were actuated, to provide capability for on-orbit pupil alignment. This paper traces the evolution of the WF/PC-II error budget from its WF/PC-I beginnings to the current configuration. This information should be of general interest to designers of future HST instruments.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.