KalAO the swift adaptive optics imager on the 1.2m Euler Swiss telescope in La Silla, Chile
Abstract
KalAO is a natural guide star adaptive optics (AO) imager to be installed on the second Nasmyth focus of the 1.2m Euler Swiss telescope in La Silla, Chile. The initial design of the system is inspired on RoboAO with modifications in order to operate in natural guide star (NGS) mode. KalAO was built to search for binarity in planet hosting stars by following-up candidates primarily from the TESS satellite survey. The optical design is optimised for the 450-900 nm wavelength range and is fitted with SDSS g,r,i,z filters. The system is designed for wavefront control down to I-magnitude 11 stars in order to probe the same parameter space as radial velocity instruments such as HARPS and NIRPS. The principal components of the system are an 11x11 10.9 cm sub-apertures Electron Multiplying CCD (EMCCD) Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor, a 140 actuators Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) deformable mirror, a fast tip/tilt mirror, and a graphics processing unit (GPU) powered glycol cooled real-time computer. It is designed to run at up to 1.8kHz in order to detect companions as close as the 150mas visible-light diffraction limit. The real-time adaptive optics control is using the CACAO software running on GPUs. The instrument is planned for commissioning early 2021 in Chile if the covid restrictions are lifted.
Additional Information
© 2020 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). This project is supported by SNSF through the Ambizione grant #PZ00P2_180098 (PI. Janis Hagelberg).Attached Files
Published - 114487G.pdf
Published - SPIE-AS20-1ac35c85-26bd-ea11-8146-005056be4d05.pdf
Submitted - 2012.09065.pdf
Files
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 107256
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20201222-122132120
- PZ00P2_180098
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
- Created
-
2020-12-22Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Series Name
- Proceedings of SPIE
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 11448