Science Commissioning of the MMT's Ground-Layer Adaptive Optics System

MMT 地面层自适应光学系统的科学调试

• 批准号: 1105893
• 负责人: Michael Hart
• 金额: $ 39.48万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-07-15 至 2015-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1105893&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Science; Commissioning; MMT; Ground; Layer

Adaptive Optics (AO) is a technique that allows astronomers to correct images received by a telescope for the distortions introduced as the light passes 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, has been pursuing such a path for the MMT Observatory on Mount Hopkins in southern Arizona. This wide field will be realized by employing five ground-layer laser guide stars spread over a two arcminute field of view of the 6.5-meter telescope. By rapidly measuring the distortions of these guide stars over the field of view and correcting them with the MMT's adaptive secondary mirror, high spatial resolution over the entire field is being achieved. With the development effort nearly completed, Dr. Hart will now begin the last stage of the project to make the AO system fully robust and integrated with the instruments used by the scientists who have access to the 6.5-meter telescope. The new capability will make the observatory more efficient (less telescope time will be needed for objects of a given brightness) and allow for more detailed studies of structural details. This work is supported by NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences program for Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation.

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，以消除光线穿过地球大气层时引入的失真。 这项技术近年来取得了重大进展，其使用越来越多，并成为世界上大多数最大望远镜的常规。 现在AO是强大和可靠的，科学家和工程师正在寻求将其应用于更广泛的视野，以便可以同时以相同的高分辨率查看更大的物体或物体群。 亚利桑那大学的迈克尔哈特博士一直在为位于亚利桑那州南部霍普金斯山的MMT天文台寻找这样一条道路。这一广阔的视野将通过使用五颗分布在6.5米望远镜两弧分视野内的地面层激光引导星来实现。 通过快速测量这些导航星在视场内的失真，并使用MMT的自适应次镜进行校正，可以实现整个视场的高空间分辨率。随着开发工作接近完成，哈特博士现在将开始项目的最后阶段，使AO系统完全鲁棒，并与能够使用6.5米望远镜的科学家使用的仪器集成。 新的能力将使天文台更有效率（对于给定亮度的物体，需要更少的望远镜时间），并允许对结构细节进行更详细的研究。 这项工作得到了NSF天文科学部先进技术和仪器计划的支持。