MRI: Development of wide-field adaptive optics at the Large Binocular Telescope using multi-laser guide beacons

MRI：使用多激光引导信标在大型双目望远镜上开发宽视场自适应光学器件

• 批准号: 1040559
• 负责人: Michael Hart
• 金额: $ 197.98万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-10-01 至 2013-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1040559&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Development; wide; field; adaptive

Adaptive Optics (AO) is a technique that allows astronomers to correct images received by a telescope for the distortions introduced by light passing through the earth's atmosphere. The technique has made significant advances in recent years and its use is increasing and becoming routine at most of the world's largest telescopes. Now that AO is robust and reliable, scientists and engineers are seeking to apply it to a wider field of view so that larger objects or clusters of objects can all be viewed with the same high resolution at once. Dr. Michael Hart, of the University of Arizona, is pursuing such a path for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). The LBT employs two 8.4-meter mirrors on a common mount and is the largest optical telescope on a single mount in the world. It is poised to make new discoveries and the addition of wide-field AO will provide it with a unique capability. This wide field will be realized by employing several laser guide stars spread over the field of view of the LBT. By rapidly measuring the distortions of these guide stars over the field of view and correcting them with the LBT's adaptive secondary mirrors, high spatial resolution over a wide field will be achieved. With this capability, astronomers will be able, for the first time, to study the details of nearby faint stars as well as the most distant galaxies and quasars in the universe. This work is supported by NSF's Major Research Instrumentation program through the Division of Astronomical Sciences.

自适应光学（AO）是一种技术，它允许天文学家校正望远镜接收到的图像，以消除光线通过地球大气层时产生的畸变。近年来，这项技术取得了重大进展，在世界上大多数最大的望远镜上，它的使用正在增加，并成为常规。现在，AO是强大而可靠的，科学家和工程师正在寻求将其应用于更广泛的视野，以便能够同时以相同的高分辨率观察更大的物体或物体群。亚利桑那大学的迈克尔·哈特博士正在为大型双筒望远镜（LBT）寻找这样一条路径。LBT在一个普通底座上安装了两个8.4米的镜子，是世界上最大的单座光学望远镜。它准备做出新的发现，广域AO的加入将为它提供独特的能力。这种宽视场将通过在LBT的视场上散布几颗激光导星来实现。通过快速测量这些导星在视场上的畸变，并用LBT的自适应副镜对其进行校正，可以实现大视场上的高空间分辨率。有了这种能力，天文学家将首次能够研究附近微弱恒星的细节，以及宇宙中最遥远的星系和类星体。这项工作是由美国国家科学基金会天文科学部的主要研究仪器项目支持的。