Quasi-static wavefront control for the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope

The Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) requires active control of quasi-static telescope aberrations in order to meet image quality standards set by its science requirements. Wavefront control is managed by the Telescope Control System, with many telescope subsystems playing key roles. We present the design of the ATST quasi-static wavefront and alignment control architecture and the algorithms used to control its four active mirrors. Two control algorithms are presented, one that minimizes force on M1 actuators and another that employs a neutral-pointing constraint on M2 to reduce pointing error. We also present simulations that generate typical daily active mirror trajectories which correct optical misalignments due to changing gravitational and thermal loads.