The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer & Adaptive Optics System: On-sky Performance and Results

摘要

Increasing spatial resolution and contrast capabilities will make possible new direct detections of exoplanets, exozodis, and circumstellar disks. The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI) has been engineered to sit at the combined focus of the Large Binocular Telescope's two 8.4m apertures. Both apertures are equipped with 672-actuator deformable secondary mirrors, the first of the next generation of ``extreme'' adaptive optics (AO) systems. We present an overview of the LBTI AO instrument suite and detail current on-sky performance.