DRAGON, the Durham real-time, tomographic adaptive optics test bench: progress and results

Andrew P. Reeves; Richard M. Myers; Timothy J. Morris; Alastair G. Basden; Nazim A. Bharmal; Stephen Rolt; David G. Bramall; Nigel A. Dipper; Edward J. Younger

doi:10.1117/12.2055415

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4 August 2014 DRAGON, the Durham real-time, tomographic adaptive optics test bench: progress and results

Andrew P. Reeves, Richard M. Myers, Timothy J. Morris, Alastair G. Basden, Nazim A. Bharmal, Stephen Rolt, David G. Bramall, Nigel A. Dipper, Edward J. Younger

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Proceedings Volume 9148, Adaptive Optics Systems IV; 91485U (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2055415
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2014, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

DRAGON is a real-time, tomographic Adaptive Optics test bench currently under development at Durham University. Optical and mechanical design work for DRAGON is now complete, and the system is close to becoming fully operational. DRAGON emulates current 4.2 m and 8 m telescopes, and can also be used to investigate ELT scale issues. The full system features 4 Laser Guide Star (LGS) Wavefront Sensors (WFS), 3 Natural Guide Star (NGS) WFSs and one Truth Sensor, all of which are 31 × 31 sub-aperture Shack-Hartmann WFS. Two Deformable Mirrors (DMs), a Boston MEMS Kilo DM and a Xinetics 97 actuator DM, correct for turbulence induced aberrations and these can be configured to be either open or closed loop of the WFS. A novel method of LGS emulation is implemented which includes the effects of uplink turbulence and elongation in real-time. The atmosphere is emulated by 4 rotating phase screens which can be translated in real-time to replicate altitude evolution of turbulent layers. DRAGON will be used to extensively study tomographic AO algorithms, such as those required for Multi-Object AO. As DRAGON has been designed to be compatible with CANARY, the MOAO demonstrator, results can be compared to those from the CANARY MOAO demonstrator on the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope. We present here an overview of the current status of DRAGON and some early results, including investigations into the validity of the LGS emulation method.

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Andrew P. Reeves, Richard M. Myers, Timothy J. Morris, Alastair G. Basden, Nazim A. Bharmal, Stephen Rolt, David G. Bramall, Nigel A. Dipper, and Edward J. Younger "DRAGON, the Durham real-time, tomographic adaptive optics test bench: progress and results", Proc. SPIE 9148, Adaptive Optics Systems IV, 91485U (4 August 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2055415

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