Gemini multiconjugate adaptive optics system review – I. Design, trade-offs and integration
Abstract
The Gemini multiconjugate adaptive optics system (GeMS) at the Gemini South telescope in Cerro Pachón is the first sodium-based multilaser guide star (LGS) adaptive optics system. It uses five LGSs and two deformable mirrors to measure and compensate for atmospheric distortions. The GeMS project started in 1999, and saw first light in 2011. It is now in regular operation, producing images close to the diffraction limit in the near-infrared, with uniform quality over a field of view of two square arcminutes. This paper is the first one in a two-paper review of GeMS. It describes the system, explains why and how it was built, discusses the design choices and trade-offs, and presents the main issues encountered during the course of the project. Finally, we briefly present the results of the system first light.
Additional Information
© 2013 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. Accepted 2013 October 22. Received 2013 October 21; in original form 2013 September 27. First published online: November 28, 2013. GeMS was a large instrumentation project. In the course of the last 13 yr, it involved people from many different disciplines. The authors would like to recognize the contribution and thank Claudio Arraya, Rodrigo Carrasco, Felipe Colazo, Fabian Collao, Paul Collins, Herman Diaz, Sarah Diggs, Matt Doolan, Anne Drouin, Michelle Edwards, Vincent Garrel, Fred Gillett, Alejandro Gutierrez, Mark Hunten, Stacy Kang, Matteo Lombini Ariel Lopez, Claudio Marchant, Eduardo Marin, Peter McGregor, Brian Miller, Cristian Moreno, Matt Mountain, Peter Pessev, Rolando Rogers, Jean-René Roy, Andrew Serio, Doug Simons, Chad Trujillo, Cristian Urrutia, Jan van Harmelen, Vicente Vergara, Tomislav Vucina, Peter J. Young and the panel members of the many reviews GeMS went through. Based on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brazil) and Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva (Argentina).Attached Files
Published - MNRAS-2014-Rigaut-2361-75.pdf
Submitted - 1310.6199v1.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 43501
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20140124-084718362
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2014-01-29Created from EPrint's datestamp field
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field