CaNaPy is an experimental Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics facility designed to demonstrate pre-compensation of a sodium LGS uplink beam, and to investigate wavefront sensing on the pre-compensated LGS using a Pyramid wavefront sensor. CaNaPy was installed at the 1m ESA OGS telescope at the Observatorio del Teide, Tenerife, in autumn 2023. Here we report on the commissioning phase activities followed by the first on-sky results on LGS uplink pre-compensation. CaNaPy is developed at ESO in collaboration with ESA, Durham University, IAC, INAF, and Microgate, with scientific collaborators from ANU and the RICAM institute.
This paper provides an overview of the various ways in which the Gender Equity in Astronomy invited presentation at the 2014 SPIE Adaptive Optics conference has contributed to shift the discourse around gender equity and gender equality in our field over the past 10 years. In Part I of this paper, the preliminary results of the 2024 survey of the international adaptive optics community are presented to quantify how the representation of women in adaptive optics has evolved since the initial survey was conducted in 2014. The 2024 survey also investigates how diverse the international AO community is across other diversity characteristics such as sexual orientation, disability, language, and geography. In Part II, small, medium and large-scale practical initiatives to achieve greater inclusion, diversity, equity and access in adaptive optics and astronomy are showcased to demonstrate how bold leadership and ambitious objectives and strategies can lead to effective and positive change in that space.
The Laser Tomography Adaptive Optics (LTAO) system for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) will be the first laser guide star adaptive optics (LGS AO) wavefront control for the GMT, aimed at pushing the boundaries of astronomical observations beyond the limits of natural guide star (NGS) operations. The Australian National University is leading the design of some of the largest work packages in the GMT LTAO project, including the GMTIFS on-instrument wavefront sensor, LTAO LGS wavefront sensors, and the Laser Guide Star System (LGSS). Central to the LTAO system is the Laser Guide Star Subsystem (LGSS), responsible for creating a Laser Guide Star (LGS) asterism adjustable between 25 to 60 arcsec and centred on the science target. The LGSS comprises six Laser Guide Star Units (LGSU), each emitting a laser beam with precise spectro-temporal and spatial characteristics. The LGSU includes a Laser System, a Beam Conditioning and Diagnostic System (BCDS), a Laser Launch Telescope (LLT), and a LGS Unit Control System (LGSU CS). These components collectively ensure accurate pointing and focusing of the laser beam on the sky. This paper provides a comprehensive update on the re-assessment and redesign of the LGSS for the GMT, a collaborative effort reignited at the Australian National University after a ten-year hiatus in design work. The LGSS design is ready to re-attain the Preliminary Design level, after integrating interface changes that have evolved at the telescope since the Preliminary Design Review took place in 2013. In order to take advantage of advances made in the field over the past 10 years, the study investigates the feasibility of a shared launch for the GMT LTAO system and also re-evaluates the number of lasers required to generate the 6 LGS asterism.
The Gemini Infrared Multi-Object Spectrograph (GIRMOS) is a four-channel adaptive-optics-assisted integral field spectrograph under design for the Gemini North Telescope. It will be employed behind the Gemini North Adaptive Optics System and will provide additional adaptive optics correction in each spectroscopic channel. This will provide multi-object spectroscopy between 0.9-2.4 µm in four fields with resolution near the diffraction limit. In addition to its spectroscopic capabilities, GIRMOS will employ an imaging camera that will provide photometry of the field of regard. The main science objectives of GIRMOS include the mapping of chemical abundances, star formation and kinematics in high-redshift galaxies, and studies of stellar populations, star formation, and super-massive black holes in nearby galaxies. In this paper, we summarize the preliminary design of the GIRMOS Calibration System that will enable spectroscopic, photometric and astrometric calibration.
We present the detailed performance of the preliminary end-to-end optical design of GIRMOS that is designed to take advantage of the multi-object adaptive optics corrected field at the Gemini North telescope. GIRMOS’s optical design consists of object selection pick-offs, adaptive optics, and four identical Integral-Field Spectrographs (IFSes), which employ image slicers to arrange the integral field along a slit. Each IFS can image the individual FOV of 1.0x1.0”, 2.0x2.0”, 4.0x4.0” over a 2’ diameter field-of-regard at different spatial sampling. The pick-offs can also be configured in close-packed arrangement to image a single field. Spectral resolutions of R~3000 and 8000 are available in 0.95-2.4 μm.
The Gemini Infrared Multi-Object Spectrograph (GIRMOS) is a four-channel adaptive-optics-assisted integralfield spectrograph being designed for the Gemini 8-meter telescopes. Deployed behind the Gemini-North Adaptive Optics (GNAO) system, it will provide spatially-resolved spectra over the 0.9-2.4 um wavelength range for four fields simultaneously. Its multi-object adaptive optics will provide additional correction of the target fields, beyond that achieved by the GNAO system, enabling integral-field spectroscopy with near-diffraction-limited resolution and unprecedented sensitivity. A parallel imaging channel will view the field of regard and provide a simultaneous imaging capability. The primary science objectives include mapping chemical abundances, star formation and kinematics in high-redshift galaxies, and studies of stellar populations, star formation and supermassive black holes in nearby galaxies. In order to support the science programs, GIRMOS requires a system that enables photometric, spectroscopic and astrometric calibration. The GIRMOS Calibration System (CAL) serves this purpose, uniformly illuminating the spectroscopic and imaging channels with both continuous and narrow-line light for flat-field and wavelength calibration. In order to replicate the light path through the instrument as closely as possible, the CAL optical system matches both the pupil position and the focal ratio of the beam delivered to the instrument by GNAO. CAL also includes a metrology system, employing focal-plane masks, to permit precise calibration of the positions of the pick-off arms of the object selection system, and to map optical distortion and instrument flexure. This paper summarizes the key requirements of the CAL system, presents its conceptual design and discusses its expected performance.
Next-generation extremely large telescopes will be equipped with adaptive optics systems that use laser guide stars produced by resonant excitation of mesospheric sodium. The wavefront sensing of these systems could be enhanced by measurements of the vertical density profile of the mesospheric sodium along the line of sight, i.e. the sodium profile producing the LGS itself. Normally in AO system a few percent ( 3%) of the light from the LGS can be retrieved as leftover from the dichroic or the optics feeding the LGS WFS. This light, filtered and sent to a photon counter could be used for retrieving sodium density profiles. One approach is to partially modulate the intensity of the continuous wave lasers with a pseudo-random binary sequence of pulses. The sodium density profile can then be retrieved by cross-correlation of the measured LGS flux with the modulation sequence. With sufficient return flux, this technique can provide profiles every few seconds, useful for matching filters applied on elongated LGS, and can provide the centroid of the sodium layer profile, needed for the adaptive optics proper focus offset corrections. We have tested the continuous wave lidar concept by making simultaneous measurements using the modulation technique and a conventional lidar system, which provides the 'truth' in the comparison of the profiles. The experiments were conducted using the ESO Wendelstein laser guide star unit and the 6 m Large Zenith Telescope's sodium lidar system, located near Vancouver, Canada. This paper describes the experiment and presents some preliminary results. The possible implementation and potential performance of this technique for extremely large telescopes will be discussed.
The return flux from a sodium laser guide star suffers, at large angles between the geomagnetic field and the laser beam, from the reduction in optical pumping due to spin-precession of sodium atoms. This detrimental effect can be mitigated by modulating the circular polarization of a continuous-wave laser beam in resonance with the Larmor frequency of sodium atoms in the mesosphere. We present an investigation based on numerical modeling to evaluate the brightness enhancement of a laser guide star with polarization modulation of a continuous-wave laser beam at different observatories.
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