Increasing sky coverage with the Gemini North ALTAIR/LGS AO system

Julian C. Christou; Maxime Boccas; Angelic Ebbers; Richard M. McDermid; Richard Oram; Chadwick Trujillo; Brian Walls

doi:10.1117/12.925507

13 September 2012 Increasing sky coverage with the Gemini North ALTAIR/LGS AO system

Julian C. Christou, Maxime Boccas, Angelic Ebbers, Richard M. McDermid, Richard Oram, Chadwick Trujillo, Brian Walls

Proceedings Volume 8447, Adaptive Optics Systems III; 84473E (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.925507
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

The Gemini North (GN) AO system, Altair, has been routinely operating in LGS mode since 2007. Due to the initial optical design, the NGS field-of-view (FoV) is limited to a radius ~ 25" which limits the potential science. To improve this, we have tested the AO/LGS operation using a peripheral wavefront sensor (PWFS) whose patrol field is ~ 4'-7' from the target. This expanded NGS FoV permits greater sky coverage but with decreased resolution, FWHM ~ 0.1" - 0.2" making this mode very suitable for non-imaging spectrographic and integral field unit observations. We present the hardware and software upgrades to PWFS and Altair as well as the software necessary for making this observing mode a routine and integral part of GN operations. Characterization and performance of this new operation mode, known as LGS+P1, are presented.

Citation Download Citation

Julian C. Christou, Maxime Boccas, Angelic Ebbers, Richard M. McDermid, Richard Oram, Chadwick Trujillo, and Brian Walls "Increasing sky coverage with the Gemini North ALTAIR/LGS AO system", Proc. SPIE 8447, Adaptive Optics Systems III, 84473E (13 September 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.925507

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