Adaptive Optics for Advanced Astrophysical Instrumentation

自适应光学（AO）装备的望远镜通过监测大气不断变化的湍流，然后“适应”光学系统进行补偿，消除了由大气湍流引起的光学模糊。通过对可变形镜的快速控制实现的这些调整，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了分辨率极限，这比哈勃太空望远镜的分辨率好很多很多倍。早期的AO系统在有限的视场（FOV）上提供校正，在一侧只有几十角秒。虽然它适用于一些天文研究，但它限制了对较大天体（如星系）的研究。宽视场AO系统在更大的视场上产生校正。目前的想法倾向于在将信号分配到仪器之前对整个视场进行适度校正的多共轭AO （MCAO）和在仪器内应用的多目标AO (MOAO)，以提供围绕多个科学目标的精确校正。***拟议的研究计划将侧重于利用专门的MOAO仪器（称为RAVEN）进行MOAO研究，该仪器由维多利亚大学自适应光学实验室（UVicAOLab; 2009- 2014）设计和建造。RAVEN仪器（加拿大创新基金会奖金6,177,274美元）是变革性宽视场AO技术的工程和科学探路者，于2014年初安装在斯巴鲁望远镜上。2014年5月和8月进行了成功的工程和科学测试。Raven的MOAO系统提供的图像分辨率大约为0.15角秒——比没有AO的典型的0.5角秒要好。***该项目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）和30米望远镜（TMT）以及欧洲超大型望远镜（E-ELT，直径39米）。这些望远镜将需要在巨大的视野范围内产生AO校正的能力。MOAO将是elt至关重要的使能技术（其中正在考虑20个科学通道MOAO系统），RAVEN将作为8米斯巴鲁望远镜上的2通道MOAO演示仪器。UVicAOLab的研究生和学术研究人员（与日本国家天文台、NRC Herzberg和东北大学合作）将利用RAVEN的独特能力进行一项令人印象深刻的研究计划，包括基础AO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.**