Last week we did a rough alignment of the M2 test gear, but now that the new target holder's ready, we hope to refine that initial effort. Unfortunately the new Faro probe extension isn't up to the job, but we can still try using the new target to mark the optical axis of M2 (while a new probe is designed & manufactured).
We still get the tip & tilt of the interferometer with the paddle mirror, but the paddle gets slid out of the way to allow access to the target which is used to set the decentre of the interferometer.
The Faro was used to position the target as close as possible to the optical axis of M2 & then we could adjust the interferometer to get it lined up with the target.
The next task was to set the tip & tilt of the target so that the reflection makes it back into the diverger on the interferometer...
The fine adjustment was made easier by having live feedback from the interferometer - shown below as the reference beam (left) & the target reflection (right) begin to overlap & produce interferometric fringes.
So the good news is that the target system works in principle - we just need to do better with the Faro extension so that we can measure everything more accurately...
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