Effect of the Keck telescope's segmented primary on the performance of the Keck adaptive optics system

The 349 degree of freedom Keck adaptive optics system will be mapped on to the 36 segment Keck primary mirror. Each telescope segment is independently controlled in piston and tilt by an active control system and each segment also has its own set of aberrations. This presents a unique set of problems for the Keck adaptive optics system, not encountered with continuous primaries. To a certain extent the low order segment aberrations, beginning with focus, can be corrected statically by the adaptive optic system. However, the discontinuous surface at the segment edges present special problems in sensing and correcting wavefront with laser guide stars or natural guide stars.