Visible-light AO system for the 4.2-m SOAR telescope

Andrei A. Tokovinin; Brooke Gregory; Hugo E. Schwarz; Valery Terebizh; Sandriane Thomas

doi:10.1117/12.457089

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7 February 2003 A visible-light AO system for the 4.2-m SOAR telescope

Andrei A. Tokovinin, Brooke Gregory, Hugo E. Schwarz, Valery Terebizh, Sandriane Thomas

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Proceedings Volume 4839, Adaptive Optical System Technologies II; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.457089
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2002, Waikoloa, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

Pushing the adaptive compensation of turbulence into the visible range remains a challenging task, despite the progress of AO technology. An AO system for SOAR, now under conceptual study, will be able to reach diffraction-limited resolution at 0.5-0.7 microns with natural guide stars as faint as magnitude 12, enabling studies of stellar vicinities for faint companions, nebulosity, etc. During the second stage of the project a Rayleigh laser guide star will be implemented. In this mode, only the lowest turbulent layers will be compensated. The angular resolution will be only two times better than natural seeing, but, in exchange, the uniformly compensated field will reach 2-3 arc-minutes, offering unique capabilities in crowded fields (clusters, nearby galaxies).

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Andrei A. Tokovinin, Brooke Gregory, Hugo E. Schwarz, Valery Terebizh, and Sandriane Thomas "A visible-light AO system for the 4.2-m SOAR telescope", Proc. SPIE 4839, Adaptive Optical System Technologies II, (7 February 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.457089

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