Influence and Correction of Wavefront Primary Aberrations for Radio Telescopes using Aberration Theory

Dual-reflector antennas are widely used in astronomical observations and satellite communication. Structural deformations of the reflectors for radio telescopes are inevitable in outside working conditions due to exterior environment loads, which will cause distortion in the surface of the primary reflector and displacement of the subreflector, then lead to gain degradation and misalignment. In this paper, the influence and correction of misalignment in a dual-reflector antenna have been studied. From the perspective of wavefront aberration, a method is proposed to correct the wavefront primary aberration by adjusting the subreflector position. The characteristics of wavefront errors caused by structural deformation of the reflector have been analyzed, and relationships between the position motions of the subreflector and the Seidel wavefront aberrations are derived. The adjustment quantities of the subreflector are also derived. The results show the appropriate positional change of the subreflector in the lateral and axial directions can effectively correct the effects of the tilt and defocus in the primary aberrations caused by antenna structural deformations.