First light AO (FLAO) system for LBT: final integration, acceptance test in Europe, and preliminary on-sky commissioning results

Esposito, Simone; Riccardi, Armando; Fini, Luca; Puglisi, Alfio; Pinna, Enrico; Xompero, Marco; Briguglio, Runa; Quirós-Pacheco, Fernando; Stefanini, P.; Guerra, Juan Carlos; Busoni, Lorenzo; Tozzi, A.; Pieralli, F.; Agapito, Guido; Brusa-Zappellini, Guido; Demers, Richard; Brynnel, Joar; Arcidiacono, Carmelo; Salinari, Piero

doi:10.1117/12.858194

Cited by 109 publications

(52 citation statements)

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“…In addition to MagAO, other current-generation AO systems, such as the Large Binocular Telescope AO (MagAO is essentially a clone of the Large Binocular Telescope [17]) and the Gemini Planet Imager, have WFSs that work at about I band as well. Table 2 serves as a reference for the photometric letter designations.…”

Section: B Choice Of Wavelength and Brightness Goalmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Laser-Guide-Star Satellite for Ground-Based Adaptive Optics Imaging of Geosynchronous Satellites

Marlow

Carlton

Yoon

et al. 2017

Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets

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In this study, the feasibility and utility of using a maneuverable nanosatellite laser guide star from a geostationary equatorial orbit have been assessed to enable ground-based, adaptive optics imaging of geosynchronous satellites with next-generation extremely large telescopes. The concept for a satellite guide star was first discussed in the literature by Greenaway and Clark in the early 1990s ("PHAROS: An Agile Satellite-Borne Laser Guidestar," Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 2120, 1994, and expanded upon by Albert in 2012 ("Satellite-Mounted Light Sources as Photometric Calibration Standards for Ground-Based Telescopes," Astronomical Journal, Vol. 143, No. 1, 2012, p. 8). With a satellite-based laser as an adaptive optics guide star, the source laser does not need to scatter, and is well above atmospheric turbulence. When viewed from the ground through a turbulent atmosphere, the angular size of the satellite guide star is much smaller than a backscattered source. Advances in small-satellite technology and capability allowed the revisiting of the concept on a 6U CubeSat, measuring 10 × 20 × 30 cm. It is shown that a system that uses a satellite-based laser transmitter can be relatively low power (∼1 W transmit power) and operated intermittently. Although the preliminary analysis indicates that a single satellite guide star cannot be used for observing multiple astronomical targets, it will only require a little propellant to relocate within the geosynchronous belt. Results of a design study on the feasibility of a small-satellite guide star have been presented, and the potential benefits to astronomical imaging and to the larger space situational awareness community have been highlighted.

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Section: B Choice Of Wavelength and Brightness Goalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After decades of development, AO is now in routine operation at all major large-diameter astronomical observatories [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Laser-Guide-Star Satellite for Ground-Based Adaptive Optics Imaging of Geosynchronous Satellites

Marlow

Carlton

Yoon

et al. 2017

Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets

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“…We designed and implemented an off-sky closed loop test somewhat similar to that used by the LBT FLAO system 17 . This test is a double-pass optical configuration that begins with a multimode fiber located at the F/15 focal plane ( Figure 8).…”

Section: Daytime Double-pass Closed-loop Optical Testmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathfinder first light: alignment, calibration, and commissioning of the LINC-NIRVANA ground-layer adaptive optics subsystem

Kopon

Conrad

Arcidiacono³

et al. 2014

SPIE Proceedings

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We present descriptions of the alignment and calibration tests of the Pathfinder, which achieved first light during our 2013 commissioning campaign at the LBT. The full LINC-NIRVANA instrument is a Fizeau interferometric imager with fringe tracking and 2-layer natural guide star multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) systems on each eye of the LBT. The MCAO correction for each side is achieved using a ground layer wavefront sensor that drives the LBT adaptive secondary mirror and a mid-high layer wavefront sensor that drives a Xinetics 349 actuator DM conjugated to an altitude of 7.1 km. When the LINC-NIRVANA MCAO system is commissioned, it will be one of only two such systems on an 8-meter telescope and the only such system in the northern hemisphere. In order to mitigate risk, we take a modular approach to commissioning by decoupling and testing the LINC-NIRVANA subsystems individually. The Pathfinder is the ground-layer wavefront sensor for the DX eye of the LBT. It uses 12 pyramid wavefront sensors to optically co-add light from natural guide stars in order to make four pupil images that sense ground layer turbulence. Pathfinder is now the first LINC-NIRVANA subsystem to be fully integrated with the telescope and commissioned on sky. Our 2013 commissioning campaign consisted of 7 runs at the LBT with the tasks of assembly, integration and communication with the LBT telescope control system, alignment to the telescope optical axis, off-sky closed loop AO calibration, and finally closed loop on-sky AO. We present the programmatics of this campaign, along with the novel designs of our alignment scheme and our off-sky calibration test, which lead to the Pathfinder's first on-sky closed loop images.

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“…Thus, the PWFS is an attractive option for the next large telescope AO system compared with the Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor [6,7] . The PWFS has been successfully used in the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo telescope and the Large Binocular Telescope, and encouraging on-sky results have been achieved [8,9] . This sensor is also investigated for implementation on the giant Magellan telescope and the Very Large Telescope Optics Facility [10,11] .…”

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First light on an adaptive optics system using a non-modulation pyramid wavefront sensor for a 1.8 m telescope

et al. 2016

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Our adaptive optics system based on a non-modulation pyramid wavefront sensor is integrated into a 1.8 m astronomical telescope installed at the Yunnan Observatory in LiJiang, and the first light with high-resolution imaging of an astronomical star is successfully achieved. In this Letter, the structure and performance of this system are introduced briefly, and then the observation results of star imaging are reported to show that the angular resolution of an adaptive optics system using a non-modulation pyramid wavefront sensor can approach the diffraction limit quality of a 1.8 m telescope.OCIS codes: 010.1080, 010.7350. doi: 10.3788/COL201614.100101.Optical images of astronomical objects viewed through ground-based telescopes are blurred by the atmosphere [1] . Adaptive optics (AO) attempts to correct, in real time, the distortion induced by the turbulence in the incoming wavefront from the astronomical object of interest, thereby enabling the telescope to reach a diffractionlimited image quality [2] . The AO system uses a wavefront sensor to make measurements of the perturbations introduced by the atmosphere [3] , so the wavefront sensor is a key element of the AO system, and its performance has a large influence on the effectiveness of wavefront correction of the AO system [4] . The pyramid wavefront sensor (PWFS) was first proposed by Ragazzoni in 1996 for astronomical AO [5] , and it has been widely investigated for applications due to its superiority in adjustable gain and flexible sampling sub-apertures, which makes the PWFS increase the number of accessible scientific targets by more efficiently using guiding star photons. Thus, the PWFS is an attractive option for the next large telescope AO system compared with the Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor [6,7] . The PWFS has been successfully used in the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo telescope and the Large Binocular Telescope, and encouraging on-sky results have been achieved [8,9] . This sensor is also investigated for implementation on the giant Magellan telescope and the Very Large Telescope Optics Facility [10,11] . At present, there are no relevant reports of the PWFS being used in large telescopes in China. In 2014, the PWFS was successfully applied to the 1.8 m telescope at the Yunnan Observatory, and first light on the AO system based on this sensor is reported in this Letter. The 1.8 m telescope at the Yunnan Observatory is a Cassegrain optical structure, and light from a star is reflected by the primary mirror, the secondary mirror, the third mirror, and the other five reflective mirrors in the Coude room. The 127-element AO system installed on the 1.8 m telescope works based on the a ShackHartmann wavefront sensor with a 13 × 13 sub-aperture microlens array, and the first light on high-resolution imaging for stars was achieved in 2009 [12] . In 2014, the new AO system, based on the PWFS and installed on the telescope, provided an alternate wavefront sensor for the existing AO system with a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor. The AO system based on th...

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First light AO (FLAO) system for LBT: final integration, acceptance test in Europe, and preliminary on-sky commissioning results

Cited by 109 publications

References 0 publications

Laser-Guide-Star Satellite for Ground-Based Adaptive Optics Imaging of Geosynchronous Satellites

Laser-Guide-Star Satellite for Ground-Based Adaptive Optics Imaging of Geosynchronous Satellites

Pathfinder first light: alignment, calibration, and commissioning of the LINC-NIRVANA ground-layer adaptive optics subsystem

First light on an adaptive optics system using a non-modulation pyramid wavefront sensor for a 1.8 m telescope

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