Donut measuring optical aberrations from a single extra-focal image.pdf

a r X i v : a s t r o - p h / 0 6 0 6 3 8 8 v 1 1 5 J u n 2 0 0 6 Donut: measuring optical aberrations from a single extra-focal image A. Tokovinin and S. Heathcote Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Casilla 603, La Serena, Chile atokovinin@ctio.noao.edu, sheathcote@ctio.noao.edu Accepted for publication in PASP June 14, 2006 ABSTRACT We propose a practical method to calculate Zernike aberrations from analysis of a single long-exposure defocused stellar image. It consists in fitting the aberration coefficients and seeing blur directly to a realistic image binned into detector pixels. This ”donut” method is different from curvature sensing in that it does not make the usual approximation of linearity. We calculate the sensitivity of this technique to detector and photon noise and determine optimal parameters for some representative cases. Aliasing of high-order un-modeled aberrations is evaluated and shown to be similar to a low-order Shack-Hartmann sensor. The method has been tested with real data from the SOAR and Blanco 4m telescopes. Subject headings: telescopes 1. Introduction An experienced optician can detect low-order aberrations by looking at the defocused image of a point source, and it is trivial to obtain defo- cused images with modern telescopes equipped with CCD detectors. Yet, measurements of low- order aberrations including focus are still made by indirect techniques, or using special equip- ment such as Shack-Hartmann (S-H) sensors. As- tronomers spend significant time in acquiring “fo- cus sequences” of stellar images, then fitting the image half-width vs. focus curve with a parabola to find the best-focus position. The appeal of estimating aberrations directly from defocused images is evident. No special equipment is needed apart from a regular imager. The aberrations in the true science beam are mea- sured, including all optics of the instrument but excluding additional optics of a wave-front sensor. The amount of defocus is easily adju