DM/WFS mis-registration tracking: Implementation and on-sky validation of SPRINT at LBT
Abstract
The advent of telescopes with an integrated deformable mirror (DM) presents new challenges for adaptive optics (AO) systems. The alignment between the DM and wavefront sensor (WFS) is expected to regularly evolve during operations due to their large separation. Without tracking and correction, these mis-registrations between the DM and WFS lead to loop instability, preventing diffraction limited performance from being realised. SPRINT\cite{heritier2021} provides an approach to track these mis-registrations during observations. Rotation, shift, and magnification mis-registrations can all be recovered. The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) currently lacks an operational solution for tracking these mis-registrations, while SPRINT has been selected as the baseline approach for several instruments on the forthcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). We report on the implementation of SPRINT into the LBT real time computer and present experimental results from both daytime and on-sky testing to validate the method.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2607.27941,
title = {DM/WFS mis-registration tracking: Implementation and on-sky validation of SPRINT at LBT},
author = {Ben Buky and Cédric Taïssir Héritier and Fabio Rossi and Juan Carlos Guerra and Charlotte Z. Bond and Noah Schwartz and Guido Agapito and Enrico Pinna and Sam Ragland and Jean-François Sauvage},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.27941},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
7 pages, 7 figures, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2026