Combined approach to the Hubble Space Telescope wave-front distortion analysis

Stellar images taken by the HST at various focus positions have been analyzed to estimate wave-front distortion. Rather than using a single algorithm, we found that better results were obtained by combining the advantages of various algorithms. For the planetary camera, the most accurate algorithms consistently gave a spherical aberration of -0.290-micron rms with a maximum deviation of 0.005 micron. Evidence was found that the spherical aberration is essentially produced by the primary mirror. The illumination in the telescope pupil plane was reconstructed and evidence was found for a slight camera misalignment.