The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 25, 1994
Filed:
Jul. 29, 1992
Gon-Yen Shen, Brookfield, CT (US);
William Zmek, Naugatuck, CT (US);
Hughes Aircraft Company, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and system of alignment of two mechanical members of a mechanical structure, particularly the primary and secondary mirrors (22, 24) of a telescope (20), is provided by a set of auxiliary optical elements (40) disposed on the primary mirror and a corresponding set of detectors (42) disposed on the secondary mirror. The array of detectors corresponds in configuration to the array of auxiliary optical elements so that there is correspondence between positions of auxiliary optical elements with positions of detectors about a common central axis (38) of the two mirrors. A source (44) of light disposed on the axis between the two mirrors illuminates the auxiliary optical elements to develop a set of eight beams, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, which are directed to the optical elements. There are two subsets of the beams, one set comprising four crisscrossing beams (C) which cross the central axis, and the second subset (D) traveling directly between the mirrors without crossing the central axis. The locations of reception of the beams relative to the detectors is sensed to ascertain the presence of any failure of alignment, thereby to permit correction of alignment with respect to tilt, decentering, despace, as well as a bowing of the primary mirror. The optical elements may be fabricated as holographic optical elements.