@inproceedings{3936494e424c455684845fa0b635234f,
title = "Scientific goals for the MMT's multi-laser-guided adaptive optics",
abstract = "The MMT's five Rayleigh laser guide star system has successfully demonstrated open loop wavefront sensing for both ground-layer and laser tomography adaptive optics (AO). Closed loop correction is expected for the first time in the autumn of 2006. The program is moving into its second phase: construction of a permanent facility to feed AO instruments now used with the telescope's existing natural star AO system. The new facility will preserve the thermal cleanliness afforded by the system's adaptive secondary mirror. With the present laser power of 4 W in each of the Rayleigh beacons, we will first offer ground-layer correction over a 2 arcmin field in J, H, and K bands, with expected image quality routinely 0.2 arcsec or better. Later, we will also offer imaging and spectroscopy from 1.5 to 4.8 μm with a tomographically corrected diffraction limited beam. The development of these techniques will lead to a facility all-sky capability at the MMT for both ground-layer and diffraction-limited imaging, and will be a critical advance in the tools necessary for extremely large telescopes of the future, particularly the Giant Magellan Telescope. We describe the present state of system development, planned progress to completion, and highlight the early scientific applications.",
keywords = "Adaptive optics, Laser guide stars, Tomography",
author = "Michael Lloyd-Hart and Thomas Stalcup and Christoph Baranec and {Mark Milton}, N. and Matt Rademacher and Miguel Snyder and Michael Meyer and Daniel Eisenstein",
year = "2006",
doi = "10.1117/12.672481",
language = "English (US)",
isbn = "081946337X",
series = "Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering",
booktitle = "Advances in Adaptive Optics II",
note = "Advances in Adaptive Optics II ; Conference date: 24-05-2006 Through 31-05-2006",
}