Laboratory for adaptative optics for the GMT project

• Grant number: 15/50373-3
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: April 01, 2016
• End date: June 30, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Astronomy - Astronomical Instrumentation
• Agreement: Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Augusto Leigui de Oliveira
• Grantee: Marcelo Augusto Leigui de Oliveira
• Principal researcher abroad: M. Kenworthy
• Institution abroad: Universiteit Leiden, Netherlands
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas (CCNH). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil

Abstract

All of the proposed Extremely Large Telescopes (EL Ts, including the E-ELT, GMT, and TMT) are limited by optical distortions introduced by the Earth's atmosphere These distortions will be partially compensated by the use of Adaptive Optics (AO), optomechanical systems that can measure the incoming wave fronts of light from celestial objects ano rapidly apply an appropriate optical correction using an active optical element, typically a deformable mirror. The development of AO is drivers by the need for more photons from the science target being delivered into fewer pixels within detecting instruments, minimising the noise from sky background photons. Seeing limited instruments scale approximately linearly with telescope size, but AO fed instruments remain the same size or can become smaller with diffraction limited imaging. An AO for ELT laboratory in Brazil will enable rapid testing of new hardware and software algorithms, and provide a telescope simulator with which to test new instrument concepts. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

LEIGUI DE OLIVEIRA, MARCELO A.; GABRIEL, JOAO P. S.; CLOSE, LM; SCHREIBER, L; SCHMIDT, D. The characterization of the Zernike modes at the focal plane for Extremely Large Telescopes projects. ADAPTIVE OPTICS SYSTEMS VI, v. 10703, p. 8-pg., 2018-01-01. (15/50373-3)