20 W and 50 W solid-state sodium beacon guidestar laser systems for the Keck I and Gemini South Telescopes

Hankla, Allen K.; Bartholomew, Jarett; Groff, Ken; Lee, Ian; McKinnie, I.T.; Moule, Grant; Rogers, Nathan; Tiemann, Bruce G.; Tracy, Allen J.; VanHoudt, P; Adkins, Sean M.; d’Orgeville, Céline

doi:10.1117/12.670054

Cited by 15 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The Laser Guide Star Facility (LGSF) includes the 50 W laser (d 'Orgeville et al 2002;d'Orgeville & McKinnie 2003;Hankla et al 2006) and the Beam Transfer Optics (BTOd 'Orgeville et al 2008) that transports the 50 W beam up the telescope, splits the beam five-ways and configures the five 10 W beams for projection by the Laser Launch Telescope (LLT) located behind the Gemini South 8 m telescope secondary mirror. The LGSF was the first subsystem to be commissioned.…”

Section: Laser Guide Star Facility Commissioningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gemini multiconjugate adaptive optics system review – II. Commissioning, operation and overall performance

Neichel¹,

Rigaut²,

Vidal³

et al. 2014

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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112

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The Gemini Multi-conjugate Adaptive Optics System -GeMS, a facility instrument mounted on the Gemini South telescope, delivers a uniform, near diffraction limited images at near infrared wavelengths (0.95 µm -2.5 µm) over a field of view of 120 . GeMS is the first sodium layer based multi laser guide star adaptive optics system used in astronomy. It uses five laser guide stars distributed on a 60 square constellation to measure for atmospheric distortions and two deformable mirrors to compensate for it. In this paper, the second devoted to describe the GeMS project, we present the commissioning, overall performance and operational scheme of GeMS. Performance of each sub-system is derived from the commissioning results. The typical image quality, expressed in full with half maximum, Strehl ratios and variations over the field delivered by the system are then described. A discussion of the main contributor to performance limitation is carried-out. Finally, overheads and future system upgrades are described.

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Section: Laser Guide Star Facility Commissioningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gemini multiconjugate adaptive optics system review – II. Commissioning, operation and overall performance

Neichel¹,

Rigaut²,

Vidal³

et al. 2014

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Self Cite

112

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“…The final engineered source (Frequency-Addition Source of Optical Radiation -FASOR) achieved 50 W of output power at the sodium line and was eventually installed at the 3.5 m telescope of the Starfire Optical Range facility of the US Airforce, where it was used for adaptive optical imaging of satellites. Multiwatt, pulsed Nd:YAG sources are currently employed at the Subaru (Saito et al 2010), Palomar (Hankla et al 2006), Keck I and Gemini South observatories (Fig. 13).…”

Section: Metrology and Calibrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Astrophotonics: astronomy and modern optics

Minardi¹,

Harris

Labadie

2021

Astron Astrophys Rev

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Much of the progress in astronomy has been driven by instrumental developments, from the first telescopes to fiber fed spectrographs. In this review, we describe the field of astrophotonics, a combination of photonics and astronomical instrumentation that is gaining importance in the development of current and future instrumentation. We begin with the science cases that have been identified as possibly benefiting from astrophotonic devices. We then discuss devices, methods and developments in the field along with the advantages they provide. We conclude by describing possible future perspectives in the field and their influence on astronomy.

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“…Although there were some discussions initially whether it was better to go for five 10 W lasers or one 50 W laser, it soon appeared than even if developments were more challenging, the latter solution was preferable for cost, space and maintenance reasons. Many more details can be found in d 'Orgeville et al (2002), Hankla et al (2006), and d 'Orgeville & McKinnie (2003) Of paramount importance were the software, the safety systems and the management. The software represented a very significant effort.…”

Section: Subsystemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gemini multiconjugate adaptive optics system review - I. Design, trade-offs and integration

Rigaut¹,

Neichel²,

Boccas³

et al. 2013

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

126

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The Gemini Multi-conjugate adaptive optics System (GeMS) at the Gemini South telescope in Cerro Pachón is the first sodium-based multi-Laser Guide Star (LGS) adaptive optics system. It uses five LGSs and two deformable mirrors to measure and compensate for atmospheric distortions. The GeMS project started in 1999, and saw first light in 2011. It is now in regular operation, producing images close to the diffraction limit in the near infrared, with uniform quality over a field of view of two square arcminutes. The present paper (I) is the first one in a two-paper review of GeMS. It describes the system, explains why and how it was built, discusses the design choices and trade-offs, and presents the main issues encountered during the course of the project. Finally, we briefly present the results of the system first light.

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20 W and 50 W solid-state sodium beacon guidestar laser systems for the Keck I and Gemini South Telescopes

Cited by 15 publications

References 3 publications

Gemini multiconjugate adaptive optics system review – II. Commissioning, operation and overall performance

Gemini multiconjugate adaptive optics system review – II. Commissioning, operation and overall performance

Astrophotonics: astronomy and modern optics

Gemini multiconjugate adaptive optics system review - I. Design, trade-offs and integration

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