A Compact, Real-Time Adaptive Optical System for Astronomical Imaging

地面天文成像受到观察路径上大气湍流造成的恶劣视觉条件的限制。大型望远镜需要对这些影响进行主动校正，以获得其孔径大小固有的最大分辨率。传统的自适应光学系统价格昂贵，且可实现的元件数量有限。这项研究将考察一种新的天文学主动波前校正方法。在第一阶段SBIR奖下，将研究实时运行的紧凑型系统。它在设计上完全是光学的，省去了大量的电子处理，以降低成本、提高速度，并允许扩展到许多有源元件。这项技术的成功开发还可以使光学测试和激光通信受益。

Ground-based astronomical imaging is limited by the poor seeing conditions that result from atmospheric turbulence in the viewing path. Large telescopes require active correction for these effects to obtain the maximum resolving power inherent in their aperture size. Traditional adaptive optical systems are costly and limited in the number of elements that can be implemented. This research will examine a new approach to active wavefront correction for astronomy. Under a Phase I SBIR award a compact system operating in real time will be investigated. It is all optical in design, eliminating substantial amounts of electronic processing to reduce cost, increase speed, and allow expansion to many active elements. Successful development of this technology could also benefit optical testing and laser communications.