Progress on Altair: the Gemini North adaptive optics system

Glen Herriot; Simon Morris; Andre Anthony; Dennis Derdall; Dave Duncan; Jennifer Dunn; Angelic W. Ebbers; J. Murray Fletcher; Tim Hardy; Brian Leckie; A. Mirza; Christopher L. Morbey; M. Pfleger; Scott C. Roberts; Philip Shott; M. Smith; Leslie K. Saddlemyer; Jerry Sebesta; Kei Szeto; Robert Wooff; W. Windels; Jean-Pierre Veran

doi:10.1117/12.390288

7 July 2000 Progress on Altair: the Gemini North adaptive optics system

Glen Herriot, Simon Morris, Andre Anthony, Dennis Derdall, Dave Duncan, Jennifer Dunn, Angelic W. Ebbers, J. Murray Fletcher, Tim Hardy, Brian Leckie, A. Mirza, Christopher L. Morbey, M. Pfleger, Scott C. Roberts, Philip Shott, M. Smith, Leslie K. Saddlemyer, Jerry Sebesta, Kei Szeto, Robert Wooff, W. Windels, Jean-Pierre Veran

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 4007, Adaptive Optical Systems Technology; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.390288
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2000, Munich, Germany

Abstract

The Gemini Adaptive Optics System, (Altair), under construction at the National Research Council of Canada's Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics is unique among AO systems. Altair is designed with its deformable mirror (DM) conjugate to high altitude. We summarize construction progress. We then describe Altair in more detail. Both the Wavefront sensor foreoptics and control system are unconventional, because the guide star footprint on an altitude-conjugated DM moves as the guide star position varies. During a typical nodding sequence, where the telescope moves 10 arcseconds between exposures, this footprint moves by half an actuator and/or WFS lenslet. The advantages of altitude conjugation include increased isoplanatic patch size, which improves sky coverage, and improved uniformity of the corrected field. Altitude conjugation also reduces focal anisoplanatism with laser beacons. Although the initial installation of Altair will use natural guide stars, it will be fully ready to use a laser guide star (LGS). The infrastructure of Gemini observatory provides a variety of wavefront sensors and nested control loops that together permit some unique design concepts for Altair.

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Glen Herriot, Simon Morris, Andre Anthony, Dennis Derdall, Dave Duncan, Jennifer Dunn, Angelic W. Ebbers, J. Murray Fletcher, Tim Hardy, Brian Leckie, A. Mirza, Christopher L. Morbey, M. Pfleger, Scott C. Roberts, Philip Shott, M. Smith, Leslie K. Saddlemyer, Jerry Sebesta, Kei Szeto, Robert Wooff, W. Windels, and Jean-Pierre Veran "Progress on Altair: the Gemini North adaptive optics system", Proc. SPIE 4007, Adaptive Optical Systems Technology, (7 July 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.390288

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