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Active control of the secondary mirror, mainly for correction of the decentering coma, is an essential tool for an active-optics telescope. The Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo is equipped with a secondary mirror supported by an hexapod mechanical structure, providing a positioning control with six degrees of freedom. The hexapod system has been built and tested to characterize its performance. The results show that the errors in the positioning of the secondary mirror lead to an aberration image well below the diffraction figure of the telescope.

The optical performances of the spectrometer assembly for the Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory mission have been tested. The flight unit of the spectrometer assembly, consisting of the structure equipped with the entrance slits assembly, the grating drive mechanisms mounting two toroidal gratings, and the photon-counting detectors, has been integrated and aligned; also the flight unit of the White Light Channel has been integrated and aligned in the spectrometer assembly. Tests with both visible and UV radiation have been performed. Aberration and stray-light measurements have shown that the instrument performs satisfactorily, almost in compliance with the scientific requirements; also some measurements of the polarimeter modulation curve and the relative error have shown performances within the specified requirements. Key words: VUV spectroscopy, visible polarimetry, space instruments.