Image quality

As reported earlier, we have had problems with the image quality which we suspected to be related to problems with the displacement mechanism (see above). However, even after all the work on the displacement mechanism, we occasionally still had distorted images. Following the problems with the main mirror support (see below), everything seems to be back to as it was before. It was also discovered that there is a flaw in the autoguider correction software which can affect the image quality at high altitude. In fact, this has been in place for a very long time. The software is being corrected, and will be tested soon.

As for the problems with the bellows of the mirror support system, as noted these were only the second and third unit to ever fail, which makes us suspect that one unit (probably one on the outside and top of the mirror) already failed earlier, causing some of the image quality problems we encountered before. The position of this bellow likely means that in many positions the effect of it not working was rather limited. Together with the various issues with the secondary unit, but also the effect caused by the autoguider, this added to the sometimes very confusing results we obtained.