Optical design and adaptive optics properties of the OWL 100-m telescope

摘要

The baseline optical design for the OWL 100-m telescope relies on a 6-mirror solution, with spherical primary and flat secondary mirrors, providing a 10 arc minutes well-corrected field of view. We briefly review the design, its nominal properties and limitations. We also outline the main results of a detailed sensitivity analysis and derive potential implications for active optics. In view of the possible use of Laser Guide Stars (LGS) as references for adaptive optics, we apply simple geometrical optics to make a detailed assessment of the telescope properties with respect to imaging of such references. We conclude that Rayleigh guide stars would not provide suitable references, and demonstrate that Sodium LGS altitude variations exclude proper control not only of focus but also of third order aberrations.