Latest GLAO results and advancements in laser tomography implementation at the 6.5m MMT telescope

Eduardo A. Bendek; Michael Hart; Keith B. Powell; Vidhya Vaitheeswaran; Don McCarthy; Craig Kulesa

doi:10.1117/12.894149

16 September 2011 Latest GLAO results and advancements in laser tomography implementation at the 6.5m MMT telescope

Eduardo A. Bendek, Michael Hart, Keith B. Powell, Vidhya Vaitheeswaran, Don McCarthy, Craig Kulesa

Proceedings Volume 8149, Astronomical Adaptive Optics Systems and Applications IV; 814907 (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.894149
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2011, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Laser tomography capability using a multi laser guide star (LGS) system is being implemented at the 6.5 m MMT telescope on Mt. Hopkins, AZ. The system uses five range-gated and dynamically refocused Rayleigh laser beacons to sense the atmospheric wavefront aberration. Corrections are then applied to the wavefront using the 336-actuator adaptive secondary mirror of the telescope. So far, the system has demonstrated successful control of ground-layer aberration over a field of view substantially wider than is delivered by conventional adaptive optics. In this paper, we report the latest results from this mode of operation, using for the first time a plate scale on our IR science camera that samples the diffraction scale at the Nyquist limit. We also discuss findings for a reduction in the width of the on-axis point-spread function from 1.07" to <0.2" in H band and present the progress achieved toward the implementation of laser tomography. This will be attempted by means of a least squares reconstructor, which is obtained using simultaneous measurements of the wavefronts from the LGS and an additional natural guide star.

Citation Download Citation

Eduardo A. Bendek, Michael Hart, Keith B. Powell, Vidhya Vaitheeswaran, Don McCarthy, and Craig Kulesa "Latest GLAO results and advancements in laser tomography implementation at the 6.5m MMT telescope", Proc. SPIE 8149, Astronomical Adaptive Optics Systems and Applications IV, 814907 (16 September 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.894149

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