Optical design of the Big Bear Solar Observatory's multi-conjugate adaptive optics system

A multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) system is being built for the world's largest aperture 1.6m solar telescope, New Solar Telescope, at the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). The BBSO MCAO system employs three deformable mirrors to enlarge the corrected field of view. In order to characterize the MCAO performance with different optical configurations and DM conjugated altitudes, the BBSO MCAO setup also needs to be flexible. In this paper, we present the optical design of the BBSO MCAO system.

[1]  Roberto Ragazzoni,et al.  LINC-NIRVANA: achieving 10 mas imagery on the Large Binocular Telescope , 2008, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[2]  F. Heidecke,et al.  The GREGOR adaptive optics system , 2012 .

[3]  Thomas Berkefeld,et al.  Multi-conjugate solar adaptive optics with the VTT and GREGOR , 2006, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[4]  Steve Hegwer,et al.  Progress with solar multi-conjugate adaptive optics at NSO , 2006, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[5]  Francois Rigaut,et al.  First On-sky Results with GeMS, the Gemini Multi-conjugate AO System , 2013 .

[6]  F. Heidecke,et al.  The 1.5 meter solar telescope GREGOR , 2012 .

[7]  Norbert Hubin,et al.  MAD on sky results in star oriented mode , 2007, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[8]  Philip R. Goode,et al.  The NST: First results and some lessons for ATST and EST , 2010 .

[9]  Thomas Rimmele,et al.  The multi-conjugate adaptive optics system of the New Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory , 2014, Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation.

[10]  Roberto Ragazzoni,et al.  LINC-NIRVANA: MCAO toward Extremely Large Telescopes , 2005 .

[11]  Jacques M. Beckers,et al.  Increasing the size of the isoplanatic patch with multiconjugate adaptive optics. , 1988 .

[12]  Thomas Berkefeld,et al.  Results of the multi-conjugate adaptive optics system at the German solar telescope, Tenerife , 2005, SPIE Optics + Photonics.

[13]  Philip R. Goode,et al.  Scientific instrumentation for the 1.6 m New Solar Telescope in Big Bear , 2010 .