On the Evaluation of Optical Performace of Observing Instruments

Y. Suematsu

It is useful to represent an optical performance of observing instruments with a single figure such as the Strehl ratio or rms wavefront error. For this aim, we investigated the relationship between the Strehl ration and MTF curve; the latter is easily obtained with MTF chart observation by observing instrument. Using model instrument whose wavefront aberration is represented with random combination of low order Zernike polynomials, we found a definite linear relation between the Strehl ratio and an average MTF area which is an integration of average MTF curve with spatial frequency; the linear relation is applicable for the region where the Strehl ratio is higher than about 0.3. We describe the method and compare the results with those derived with a phase diversity method. We expect to apply the method here to evaluate the optical performance of the filter channels of Focal Plane Package of SOLAR-B Solar Optical Telescope.

Correspondence

Y. Suematsu (suematsu@solar.mtk.nao.ac.jp), NAOJ

presentation

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