TY - JOUR
T1 - On-sky wide-field adaptive optics correction using multiple laser guide stars at the MMT
AU - Baranec, Christoph
AU - Hart, Michael
AU - Milton, N. Mark
AU - Stalcup, Thomas
AU - Powell, Keith
AU - Snyder, Miguel
AU - Vaitheeswaran, Vidhya
AU - McCarthy, Don
AU - Kulesa, Craig
PY - 2009/3/10
Y1 - 2009/3/10
N2 - We describe results from the first astronomical adaptive optics (AO) system to use multiple laser guide stars, located at the 6.5 m MMT telescope in Arizona. Its initial operational mode, ground-layer adaptive optics (GLAO), provides uniform stellar wave front correction within the 2′ diameter laser beacon constellation, reducing the stellar image widths by as much as 53%, from 070 to 033 at λ = 2.14 μm. GLAO is achieved by applying a correction to the telescope's adaptive secondary mirror that is an average of wave front measurements from five laser beacons supplemented with image motion from a faint stellar source. Optimization of the AO system in subsequent commissioning runs will further improve correction performance where it is predicted to deliver 01-02 resolution in the near-infrared during a majority of seeing conditions.
AB - We describe results from the first astronomical adaptive optics (AO) system to use multiple laser guide stars, located at the 6.5 m MMT telescope in Arizona. Its initial operational mode, ground-layer adaptive optics (GLAO), provides uniform stellar wave front correction within the 2′ diameter laser beacon constellation, reducing the stellar image widths by as much as 53%, from 070 to 033 at λ = 2.14 μm. GLAO is achieved by applying a correction to the telescope's adaptive secondary mirror that is an average of wave front measurements from five laser beacons supplemented with image motion from a faint stellar source. Optimization of the AO system in subsequent commissioning runs will further improve correction performance where it is predicted to deliver 01-02 resolution in the near-infrared during a majority of seeing conditions.
KW - atmospheric effects
KW - instrumentation: adaptive optics
KW - instrumentation: high angular resolution
KW - telescopes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=67650681672&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=67650681672&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1088/0004-637X/693/2/1814
DO - 10.1088/0004-637X/693/2/1814
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:67650681672
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 693
SP - 1814
EP - 1820
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
ER -