We describe results from the first astronomical adaptive optics (AO) system to use multiple laser guide stars, located at the 6.5 m MMT telescope in Arizona. Its initial operational mode, ground-layer adaptive optics (GLAO), provides uniform stellar wave front correction within the 2' diameter laser beacon constellation, reducing the stellar image widths by as much as 53%, from 0."70 to 0."33 at λ = 2.14 μm. GLAO is achieved by applying a correction to the telescope's adaptive secondary mirror that is an average of wave front measurements from five laser beacons supplemented with image motion from a faint stellar source. Optimization of the AO system in subsequent commissioning runs will further improve correction performance where it is predicted to deliver 0."1-0."2 resolution in the near-infrared during a majority of seeing conditions.
展开▼
机译:我们描述了位于亚利桑那州6.5 m MMT望远镜上的第一个使用多个激光制导星的天文自适应光学(AO)系统的结果。它的初始操作模式是地面层自适应光学(GLAO),可在直径2'的激光信标星座内提供均匀的恒星波前校正,从而将恒星图像宽度从0.“ 70减小到0”最多减少了53%。 λ= 2.14μm时为33。 GLAO是通过对望远镜的自适应辅助反射镜进行校正而实现的,该校正是来自五个激光信标的波前测量值的平均值,并辅以来自微弱恒星源的图像运动。在随后的试运行中,对AO系统的优化将进一步改善校正性能,在大多数情况下,预计在近红外条件下可提供0.“ 1-0。” 2的分辨率。
展开▼