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Session 76 - Adaptive Optics.
Display session, Wednesday, January 17
North Banquet Hall, Convention Center
The Chicago Adaptive Optics System has been installed on the 3.5 meter ARC telescope at Apache Point Observatory, New Mexico since April of 1995. This is a high order (97 and 201 actuators) facility instrument optimized for use with a laser beacon. The system has achieved closed-loop performance on stars with two geometric types of deformable mirrors. Images and real-time wavefront errors of stars with different brightness have been recorded during these preliminary tests in order to quantitatively characterize the performance of the system. The unique compact design and a user-friendly computer interface make this system a general astronomical facility instrument as well as a powerful test bench to explore techniques of adaptive optics.
