Villages: an on-sky visible wavelength astronomy AO experiment using a MEMS deformable mirror

Abstract

ABSTRACT The MEMS-AO/Villages project consists of a series of on-sky experiments that will demonstrate key new technologies for the next generation of adaptive optics systems for large telescopes. One of our first goals is to demonstrate the use of a micro-electro-mechanical system s (MEMS) deformable mirror as the wavefront correcting element. The system is mounted the 1-meter Nickel Telescope at the UCO/Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton. It uses a 140 element (10 subapertures across) MEMS deformable mirror and is designed to produce diffraction-limited images at wavelengths from 0.5 to 1.0 microns. The system had first light on the telescope in October 2007. Here we report on the results of initial on-sky tests. Keywords: Astronomical Adaptive Optics, Deformable Mirrors, Atmospheric Wavefront Control 1. INTRODUCTION The Lick Observatory has constructed an experimental visible light adaptive optics system for use on the 1 meter Nickel telescope at Mount Hamilton with the purpose of demonstrating MEMS deformable mirrors as well as several other new AO technology concepts in an observatory environment. The MEMS-AO/Visible Light Laser Guidestar Experiments (Villages) project has two goals in its first phase: 1) demonstrating that a MEMS deformable mirror can correct stellar images to the diffraction limit in a closed loop AO system, 2) demonstrating that a MEMS can be used reliably in an open-loop, or “go-to” control on-sky. We have achieved goal 1 during this past year’s first-light experiments (October and November 2007) and we expect to achieve goal 2 this spring as a follow on to successful laboratory tests reported in a companion paper