2014/07/30 by Donald Gavel, Renate Kupke, Daren Dillon +14 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.1117/12.2055256
11 pages, 10 figures. Presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation conference, paper 9148-76
arxiv created 2014/07/30 · arxiv updated 2015/06/22
A new high-order adaptive optics system is now being commissioned at the Lick Observatory Shane 3-meter telescope in California. This system uses a high return efficiency sodium beacon and a combination of low and high-order deformable mirrors to achieve diffraction-limited imaging over a wide spectrum of infrared science wavelengths covering 0.8 to 2.2 microns. We present the design performance goals and the first on-sky test results. We discuss several innovations that make this system a pathfinder for next generation AO systems. These include a unique woofer-tweeter control that provides full dynamic range correction from tip/tilt to 16 cycles, variable pupil sampling wavefront sensor, new enhanced silver coatings developed at UC Observatories that improve science and LGS throughput, and tight mechanical rigidity that enables a multi-hour diffraction- limited exposure in LGS mode for faint object spectroscopy science.