Adaptive Optics for Advanced Astrophysical Instrumentation

配备自适应光学(AO)的望远镜通过监测大气中不断变化的湍流，然后调整光学系统进行补偿，从而消除由于大气湍流造成的光学模糊。这些通过快速控制可变形反射镜实现的适应，极大地提高了最终图像的分辨率，并使大型地面望远镜达到分辨率极限，这比哈勃太空望远镜的分辨率高出许多倍。早期的声光系统在有限的视场(FOV)上提供校正，一侧只有几十角秒。虽然适用于一些天文学研究，但它减少了对较大天体的研究，如星系。广域声光系统在大得多的视场上产生校正。目前的想法倾向于多共轭声光(MCAO)，用于在将信号分发到仪器之前适度校正整个视场，以及多对象声光(MOAO)，用于在仪器内应用，以提供围绕多个科学目标的精细校正。*拟议的研究计划将专注于利用维多利亚大学自适应光学实验室(UVicAOLab；2009至2014)设计和制造的专用MOAO仪器(称为RAVEN)进行MOAO研究。Raven仪器(6,177,274美元加拿大创新基金会奖)是变革性广域声光技术的工程和科学探索者，并于2014年初安装在斯巴鲁望远镜上。2014年5月和8月成功地进行了工程和科学运行。瑞文的MOAO系统提供的图像分辨率约为0.15角秒--好于没有声光的典型0.5角秒。*该计划对下一代超大型望远镜(ELT)至关重要，如巨型麦哲伦望远镜(GMT，直径25米)、30米望远镜(TMT)和欧洲极大望远镜(E-ELT，直径39米)。这些望远镜将需要在大视场内产生声光校正的能力。MOAO将是ELTS(正在考虑使用20个科学通道的MOAO系统)的一项至关重要的使能技术，而RAVEN则是8米斯巴鲁望远镜上的一个双通道MOAO演示仪器。UVicAOLab(与日本国家天文台、NRC Herzberg和东北大学合作)的研究生和学术研究人员将利用Raven的独特能力进行一项令人印象深刻的研究计划，其中包括基础光学研究(算法开发、控制系统、传感器技术、光学设计和MOAO系统性能改进)和基于MOAO的天文学。

Adaptive Optics (AO) equipped telescopes eliminate the optical blur, due to atmospheric turbulence, by monitoring the atmosphere's ever-changing turbulence and then "adapting" the optical system to compensate. These adaptations, achieved through the fast control of deformable mirrors, dramatically improve the resolution of the final image and allow large ground-based telescopes to reach their resolution limit, which is many many times better than that of the Hubble Space Telescope. Early AO systems provided correction on a limited field of view (FOV), only a few tens of arcseconds on a side. While suitable for some astronomical inquiries it curtailed studies of larger objects, such as galaxies. Wide field AO systems produce corrections over a much larger FOV. Current thinking favours multi-conjugate AO (MCAO) for moderately correcting the entire FOV prior to distributing the signal to an instrument and multi-object AO (MOAO) for application within an instrument to provide exquisite correction around multiple scientific targets.***The proposed research program will focus on MOAO research utilizing a dedicated MOAO instrument (called RAVEN) that was designed and built at the University of Victoria Adaptive Optics Laboratory (UVicAOLab; 2009-to-2014). The RAVEN instrument ($6,177,274 Canada Foundation for Innovation award) is an engineering and science pathfinder for transformative wide-field AO technologies and was installed on the Subaru telescope in early 2014. Successful engineering and science runs were conducted in May and August 2014. Raven's MOAO system delivers images with roughly 0.15-arcsecond resolution - better than the typical 0.5-arcsecond achievable without AO.***The program is critically important for the next generation of extremely large telescopes (ELTs), such as the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT, diameter 25m) and Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT, diameter 39m). These telescopes will require the ability to produce AO corrections over a huge field of view. MOAO will be a critically important enabling technology for ELTs (where 20-science channel MOAO systems are being considered) and RAVEN acts as a 2-channel MOAO demonstrator instrument on the 8m Subaru Telescope. Graduate students and academic researchers at UVicAOLab (in partnership with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, NRC Herzberg, and Tohoku University) will utilize RAVEN's unique abilities to undertake an impressive research program that includes fundamental AO research (algorithm development, control systems, sensor technology, optical design and MOAO system performance improvement) and MOAO-based astronomy.**