Scattered energy at the Starfire Optical Range 3.5-m adaptive optic telescope

摘要

Abstract: In order to image faint stellar companions from the ground, high resolution adaptive optics (AO) is needed to correct atmospheric seeing. The 3.5m AO system at the Starfire Optical Range (SOR) was used to confirm theoretical models of scattered light. Halo levels were reduced by a 50 percent at 0.5 inch, which, when combined with the increased Strehl ratio, improved the gain by a factor of 23. Speckle lifetimes ranged form 20 ms at 0.1 inch to 4 ms at 0.4 inch, much longer than the 0.7 ms correction time. These results show good agreement with predictions for current technology and reveal no limitations in principle to detection of exo- solar planets using AO systems with higher speed and resolution. !24