Active vase mirrors warped by Zernike polynomials for Correcting off-axis aberrations of fixed primary mirrors. Part 2 - Optical testing and performance evaluation

We investigate the aspherization of an active mirror for correcting third and fifth-order aberrations. We use a stainless steel AISI 420 mirror with a controlled pressure load, two series of 12-punctual radial positions of force application distributed symmetrically in two concentric rings around the mirror. We obtain the wavefronts for Cv1, Sph3, Coma3, Astm3, Comatri, Astm5 aswell as those of the added wavefronts. Although this active prototype mirror has general uses, our goal is to compensate the aberrations of a liquid mirror observing at large angles from the zenith.