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K.C. Roth (Gemini Observatory), O. Guyon (IfA, University of Hawaii), M. Chun, J.B. Jensen, I. Jorgensen, F. Rigaut, D.M. Walther (Gemini Observatory)
Hokupa'a (which means ``immovable star'' in Hawaiian) is the 36-element curvature sensing adaptive optics system built by the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii. This system has recently been fitted for use on the 8-m Gemini North Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. This system, along with the QUIRC infrared detector (also built by the IfA) has been available to the Gemini community as a visitor instrument since August 2000 in semester 2000B under the QuickStart queue observing campaign and currently in semester 2001A for classical observing.
We present a summary of performance characteristics measured during QuickStart and various engineering nights. In particular we show empirical evidence for strehl and FWHM variations with guide star magnitude as well as theoretical models for other factors which can be used to determine expected image quality. In addition we discuss the effects of field rotation on the image PSF resulting from the alt-az design of the Gemini telescope. We discuss non-standard modes of observing which may be useful for programs where PSF subtraction and characterization are crucial elements, eg. detection of host galaxies underneath bright QSOs (see Guyon et al. contribution at this meeting).
The Gemini Observatory is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (United Kingdom), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), CNPq (Brazil) and CONICET (Argentina).
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: kroth@gemini.edu