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5 Summary

Explicit expressions in terms of fundamental telescope parameters of a two mirror telescope can be derived for the coefficients describing the field dependence of third order astigmatism. Of particular importance is the dependence of the coefficients on the position of the stop. In addition, these parameters are recalculated for a reference system where the center of the adapter is at the origin. The numerical values are used to show that from the measurement of the field dependence of third order astigmatism at eight locations in the pupil the axes of the primary and secondary mirrors of the VLT can be aligned with an accuracy of approximately 7''.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Ray Wilson for helpful comments and discussions.


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Up: Analytical expressions for field

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