An autocollimator alignment system for a Schwarzschild-Couder Cherenkov telescope

We present a digital autocollimator which will be used in the alignment system of a prototype medium-sized telescope, which is part of the U.S. contribution to the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). The Schwarzschild-Couder optics in the prototype telescope (which is currently under construction) requires the precise alignment of three components: the primary and secondary segmented mirrors, and the gamma-ray camera. The approximately 9 meter separation between the mirrors necessitates remote optical measurement. Our autocollimator will measure the angle of a segment in one mirror relative to the center of the other mirror with a precision better than 5 arcsec over a range of ±0.126 ° . We present a detailed description of the instrument and describe its performance in the laboratory.