@article{2ae024db078148929192113db93909a2,
title = "ARGOS at the LBT: Binocular laser guided ground-layer adaptive optics",
abstract = "Having completed its commissioning phase, the Advanced Rayleigh guided Ground-layer adaptive Optics System (ARGOS) facility is coming online for scientific observations at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). With six Rayleigh laser guide stars in two constellations and the corresponding wavefront sensing, ARGOS corrects the ground-layer distortions for both LBT 8.4 m eyes with their adaptive secondary mirrors. Under regular observing conditions, this set-up delivers a point spread function (PSF) size reduction by a factor of 2-3 compared to a seeing-limited operation. With the two LUCI infrared imaging and multi-object spectroscopy instruments receiving the corrected images, observations in the near-infrared can be performed at high spatial and spectral resolution. We discuss the final ARGOS technical set-up and the adaptive optics performance. We show that imaging cases with ground-layer adaptive optics (GLAO) are enhancing several scientific programmes, from cluster colour magnitude diagrams and Milky Way embedded star formation, to nuclei of nearby galaxies or extragalactic lensing fields. In the unique combination of ARGOS with the multi-object near-infrared spectroscopy available in LUCI over a 4{\^a}×{\^a}4 arcmin field of view, the first scientific observations have been performed on local and high-z objects. Those high spatial and spectral resolution observations demonstrate the capabilities now at hand with ARGOS at the LBT.",
keywords = "Gravitational lensing: strong, Instrumentation: Adaptive optics, Instrumentation: high angular resolution, Instrumentation: spectrographs",
author = "S. Rabien and R. Angel and L. Barl and U. Beckmann and L. Busoni and S. Belli and M. Bonaglia and J. Borelli and J. Brynnel and P. Buschkamp and A. Cardwell and A. Contursi and C. Connot and R. Davies and M. Deysenroth and O. Durney and F. Eisenhauer and M. Elberich and S. Esposito and B. Frye and W. Gaessler and V. Gasho and H. Gemperlein and R. Genzel and Georgiev, {I. Y.} and R. Green and M. Hart and C. Kohlmann and M. Kulas and M. Lefebvre and T. Mazzoni and J. Noenickx and {Orban De Xivry}, G. and T. Ott and D. Peter and A. Puglisi and Y. Qin and A. Quirrenbach and W. Raab and M. Rademacher and G. Rahmer and M. Rosensteiner and Rix, {H. W.} and P. Salinari and C. Schwab and A. Sivitilli and M. Steinmetz and J. Storm and C. Veillet and G. Weigelt and J. Ziegleder",
note = "Funding Information: Acknowledgements. Over the extent of the project many people and institutions have helped to make ARGOS work. In no particular order, we would like to thank all the members from the workshops, design departments, industry partners, and students for building, installing, and commissioning the many pieces that form a complex system. Many thanks to Matthias Honsberg, David Huber, Stephan Czempiel, Martin Deuter, Simon Kr{\"a}mer, Luca Carbonaro, Marcus Haug, Markus Thiel, Stefan Kellner, Reinhard Lederer, Nancy Ageorges, Christina Loose, Peter Mayer, Gerhard H{\"o}lzl, Thomas Ertl, Franz Soller, Stefan Huber, Felix Dressler, Florian Gorgeon, Sebastian Ihle, Robert Hartmann, Thomas Bl{\"u}mchen, Michael Lehmitz, Monica Ebert, Klaus Meixner, Norbert M{\"u}nch, Thomas Hahn, and in memoriam to Srikrishna Kanneganti. We would also like to thank the LBTO engineering, mountain crew, and telescope operators for excellent support over all the years. Very special thanks to Jasmin Zanker-Smith for flawlessly organizing all the many meetings, travels, and commissioning trips to the mountain. Great thanks also to the enthusiastic spotting crew standing outside in the wind and snow watching out for aircraft during all the commissioning nights. The LBT is an international collaboration among institutions in the United States, Italy, and Germany. LBT Corporation partners are: The University of Arizona on behalf of the Arizona Board of Regents; Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Italy; LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Germany, representing the Max-Planck Society, The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam, and Heidelberg University; The Ohio State University and The Research Corporation on behalf of The University of Notre Dame, University of Minnesota, and University of Virginia. This work has been supported amongst others by funds from the Max Planck Society, the European Union through the Optical Infrared Co-ordination Network for Astronomy, Grant Agreement 226604, and by the National Science Foundation under award AST-1040559. Funding Information: National Science Foundation under award AST-1040559 Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} ESO 2018.",
year = "2019",
month = jan,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1051/0004-6361/201833716",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "621",
journal = "Astronomy and astrophysics",
issn = "0004-6361",
publisher = "EDP Sciences",
}