NAOS--the first AO system of the VLT: on-sky performance

Gerard Rousset; Francois Lacombe; Pascal Puget; Norbert N. Hubin; Eric Gendron; Thierry Fusco; Robin Arsenault; Julien Charton; Philippe Feautrier; Pierre Gigan; Pierre Y. Kern; Anne-Marie Lagrange; Pierre-Yves Madec; David Mouillet; Didier Rabaud; Patrick Rabou; Eric Stadler; Gerard Zins

doi:10.1117/12.459332

7 February 2003 NAOS, the first AO system of the VLT: on-sky performance

Gerard Rousset, Francois Lacombe, Pascal Puget, Norbert N. Hubin, Eric Gendron, Thierry Fusco, Robin Arsenault, Julien Charton, Philippe Feautrier, Pierre Gigan, Pierre Y. Kern, Anne-Marie Lagrange, Pierre-Yves Madec, David Mouillet, Didier Rabaud, Patrick Rabou, Eric Stadler, Gerard Zins

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 4839, Adaptive Optical System Technologies II; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.459332
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2002, Waikoloa, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

NAOS is the first adaptive optics system installed at the VLT 8m telescopes. It was designed, manufactured and tested by a french Consortium under an ESO contract, to provide compensated images to the high angular resolution IR spectro-imaging camera (CONICA) in the 1 to 5 μm spectral range. It is equipped with a 185 actuator deformable mirror, a tip/tilt mirror and two wavefront sensors, one in the visible and one in the near IR spectral range. It has been installed in November at the Nasmyth focus B of the VLT UT4. During the first light run in December 2001, NAOS has delivered a Strehl ratio of 50 under average seeing conditions for bright guide stars. The diffraction limit of the telescope has been achieved at 2.2 μm. The closed loop operation has been very robust under bad seeing conditions. It was also possible to obtain a substantial correction with mV=17.6 and mK=13.1 reference stars. The on-sky acceptance tests of NAOS-CONICA were completed in May 2002 and the instrument will be made available to the European astronomical community in October by ESO. This paper describes the system and present the on-sky performance in terms of Strehl ratio, seeing conditions and guide star magnitude.

Citation Download Citation

Gerard Rousset, Francois Lacombe, Pascal Puget, Norbert N. Hubin, Eric Gendron, Thierry Fusco, Robin Arsenault, Julien Charton, Philippe Feautrier, Pierre Gigan, Pierre Y. Kern, Anne-Marie Lagrange, Pierre-Yves Madec, David Mouillet, Didier Rabaud, Patrick Rabou, Eric Stadler, and Gerard Zins "NAOS, the first AO system of the VLT: on-sky performance", Proc. SPIE 4839, Adaptive Optical System Technologies II, (7 February 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.459332

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available