SIGHT: A compact adaptive optics technology demonstrator for all-sky panchromatic optical/infrared spectroscopy

该项目将开发一种通过提高大型研究望远镜的灵敏度来增强其性能的技术。利用激光探测地球不断演变的大气，该项目将展示一种修正大气湍流效应的新方法。这样的效果与人们在晚上看一颗恒星并看到它不断变化时所能看到的东西有关。为了执行这种校正，一种新的光学元件和算法将足够快地检测到这种变化，以允许实时补偿。此外，系统还将进行冷却，以减少背景红外辐射。这些优势将提高现有和新的研究望远镜的科学性。Hale Telescope(SIGH)使用导星(SIGH)锐化图像是一个激光导星(LGS)自适应光学(AO)演示器，能够在整个天空进行全色可见光到红外图像补偿。SIGH的创新之处在于展示了一种新颖的高动态范围开环LGS光学微分器波前传感器(ODWFS)，将一台AO科学继电器冷却至-30℃以降低热背景，在5米望远镜上自动进行LGS观测，并展示了适合许多AO和光谱分析应用的紧凑型光学设计。与以前的LGS系统不同，SIGH将在从紫外线大气截止到近红外的大范围波长上锐化图像。该系统将优化全色光谱仪的光学和操作效率，为微弱、致密物体的可见观测提供高达4倍的速度优势。因此，SIGH解决了一种需要，即使用高效的光谱仪来提高通过兹维基瞬变设施(ZTF)和鲁宾天文台发现的瞬变物体的快速、中等分辨率分类。应用基于LGS传感的高阶波前校正，SIGH无需自然导航星(NGS)进行倾斜校正即可显著提高图像的清晰度。然而，当NGS可用时，视距性能会进一步提高。这些技术在未来的多目标光谱仪(MOS)和大型望远镜的先进声光架构中的适用性将得到证明。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will develop a technique to enhance large research telescopes by improving their sensitivity. Utilizing a laser source to probe Earth's ever-evolving atmosphere, the project will demonstrate a new way of correcting for atmospheric turbulence effects. Such effects are related to what people can see when they look at a star at night and see it constantly changing. To perform this correction, a novel optical element and algorithms will detect such changes quickly enough to allow for compensation in real time. Additionally, the system will be cooled to reduce background infrared radiation. These advantages will enhance the science for existing and new research telescopes.Sharpening Images using Guidestars at the Hale Telescope (SIGHT) is a laser guide star (LGS) adaptive optics (AO) demonstrator enabling panchromatic visible-to-infrared image compensation over the entire sky. SIGHT innovates by, demonstrating a novel high-dynamic-range Open loop LGS Optical Differentiator Wavefront Sensor (ODWFS), cooling an AO science relay to -30C for thermal background reduction, automating LGS observations on a 5-meter telescope, and demonstrating a compact optical design appropriate for many AO and spectrographic applications. Unlike prior LGS system, SIGHT will sharpen images over a large range of wavelengths, from the ultraviolet atmospheric cut-off to the near-IR. The system will optimize panchromatic spectrograph optical and operational efficiency, providing a factor of up to 4x speed advantage for visible observations of faint, compact objects. SIGHT thus addresses a need, to improve rapid, moderate-resolution classification of transient objects discovered with the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and the Rubin Observatory using efficient spectrographs. Applying high-order wavefront corrections based on LGS sensing, SIGHT sharpens images significantly without needing a natural guide star (NGS) for tip-tilt correction. However, when an NGS is available, SIGHT performance is further improved. The applicability of these techniques to future multi-object spectrographs (MOS) and advance AO architectures for large telescopes will be demonstrated.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.