'Imaka: working towards very wide-field of view AO

• Published in: SPIE Proceedings, Adaptive Optics Systems III
• Main Authors: Chun, M., Lai, O., Cuillandre, J.-C., Richer, H., Toomey, D., Salmon, D., Carlberg, R., Andersen, D., Burgarella, D., Ho, K., Pazder, J., Bertin, E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Angular resolution; Antarctica; Fields of views; Ground-based telescopes; Ground-layer adaptive optics; Optical turbulence; Orders of magnitude; Paranal; Wide field imaging; Wide field of view; Wide-field; Engineering; Molecular physics; Adaptive optics; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.925530; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/object/?id=d0805b88-c81b-4545-9391-eba9b9db82b5; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/fra/voir/objet/?id=d0805b88-c81b-4545-9391-eba9b9db82b5

Ground-layer adaptive optics (GLAO) has the potential to dramatically increase the efficiency and capabilities of existing ground-based telescopes over a broad range of astronomical science. Recent studies of the optical turbulence above several astronomical sites (e.g. Mauna Kea, Paranal, and Antarctica) show that GLAO can be extended to fields of view of several tens of arcminutes in diameter, larger than previously thought, with angular resolutions close to the free-atmosphere seeing. This is a pivotal result since GLAO science cases benefit from the largest possible corrected fields of view. The corrected areal field of a GLAO system is potentially 2-3 orders of magnitude larger than has been demonstrated to date. The 'Imaka team is working toward an instrument that takes advantage of the one-degree field afforded by Mauna Kea. In this paper we summarize the design/simulation work to date along with our plan to develop an instrument that reaches for this wide field of view. © 2012 SPIE. Peer reviewed: Yes NRC publication: Yes