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Session 76 - Adaptive Optics.
Display session, Wednesday, January 17
North Banquet Hall, Convention Center
CHRISP is a prototype adaptive optics system based on curvature sensing we have designed and built for the DAO 1.2 m telescope. With it, we expect to study faint companions to nearby stars, using the primary as a natural guide star. The details of many binary systems are hidden, since the secondary spectrum is hard to detect against the glare from the primary. By improving image sharpness, and diverting the primary light to the wavefront sensor, we expect to greatly enhance the contrast of the faint companion.
To simplify the optical design, the CHRISP wavefront sensor detects curvature deviations in a single defocussed image. The prototype wavefront sensor uses a low-noise frame transfer 64x64 CCD with a custom DSP56002 controller.
Low order wavefront correction (including tip-tilt) is provided by a deformable membrane mirror with a few dozen actuators. The control system maps sensor zones to the corresponding mirror actuators.
We hope to present preliminary experimental results.
