'Imaka: working towards very wide-field of view AO

摘要

Ground-layer adaptive optics (GLAO) has the potential to dramatically increase the efficiency and capabilities ofexisting ground-based telescopes over a broad range of astronomical science. Recent studies of the optical turbulenceabove several astronomical sites (e.g. Mauna Kea, Paranal, and Antarctica) show that GLAO can be extended to fields ofview of several tens of arcminutes in diameter, larger than previously thought, with angular resolutions close to the freeatmosphereseeing. This is a pivotal result since GLAO science cases benefit from the largest possible corrected fieldsof view. The corrected areal field of a GLAO system is potentially i2-3 orders of magnitude/i larger than has beendemonstrated to date. The 'Imaka team is working toward an instrument that takes advantage of the one-degree fieldafforded by Mauna Kea. In this paper we summarize the design/simulation work to date along with our plan to developan instrument that reaches for this wide field of view.© (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.