Experimental study of external occulters for the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph 2: LASCO-C2

To reduce the level of stray light in a new-generation externally occulted space coronagraph, we consider new concepts for its external occulter and its associated diaphragm and report extended measurements of their light-rejection properties. The experimental setup, which includes an artificial Sun, uses both photometric and CCD imaging techniques and permits the study of the sensitivity to misalignement of the instrument's performance. Conic occulters that have either a multithreaded or a polished surface are found to give performances superior to those of the classical three-disk system and further are highly tolerant to misalignement. Serrated diaphragms outperform circular ones, as the bulk of the diffracted light is diverted from the coronagraphic objective.