On-sky wide-field adaptive optics correction using multiple laser guide stars at the MMT
Abstract
We describe results from the first astronomical adaptive optics (AO) system to use multiple laser guide stars, located at the 6.5 m MMT telescope in Arizona. Its initial operational mode, ground-layer adaptive optics (GLAO), provides uniform stellar wave front correction within the 2' diameter laser beacon constellation, reducing the stellar image widths by as much as 53%, from 0."70 to 0."33 at λ = 2.14 μm. GLAO is achieved by applying a correction to the telescope's adaptive secondary mirror that is an average of wave front measurements from five laser beacons supplemented with image motion from a faint stellar source. Optimization of the AO system in subsequent commissioning runs will further improve correction performance where it is predicted to deliver 0."1-0."2 resolution in the near-infrared during a majority of seeing conditions.
Additional Information
© 2009 American Astronomical Society. Print publication: Issue 2 (2009 March 10); received 2008 September 1; accepted for publication 2008 November 28; published 2009 March 10. Observations reported here were made at the MMT, a joint facility of the University of Arizona and the Smithsonian Institution. We are grateful for the continued support of the MMT Observatory staff, particularly M. Alegria, A. Milone, and J. McAfee.We thank T. Pickering for providing the MMT seeing data. This work has been supported by the National Science Foundation under grants AST-0138347 and AST-0505369 and by the University of Arizona Technology and Research Initiative Fund.Attached Files
Published - Baranec2009p1039Astrophys_J.pdf
Files
| Name | Size | Download all |
|---|---|---|
|
md5:b0ff4f5375019c0b374f34d56d50b663
|
1.5 MB | Preview Download |
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 14109
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20090429-104905038
- AST-0138347
- NSF
- AST-0505369
- NSF
- University of Arizona Technology and Research Initiative Fund
- Created
-
2009-08-10Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field