Entering into the Wide Field Adaptive Optics Era on Maunakea
Abstract
As part of the National Science Foundation funded "Gemini in the Era of MultiMessenger Astronomy" (GEMMA) program, Gemini Observatory is developing GNAO, a widefield adaptive optics (AO) facility for Gemini-North on Maunakea, the only 8m-class open-access telescope available to the US astronomers in the northern hemisphere. GNAO will provide the user community with a queue-operated Multi-Conjugate AO (MCAO) system, enabling a wide range of innovative solar system, Galactic, and extragalactic science with a particular focus on synergies with JWST in the area of time-domain astronomy. The GNAO effort builds on institutional investment and experience with the more limited block-scheduled Gemini Multi-Conjugate System (GeMS), commissioned at Gemini South in 2013. The project involves close partnerships with the community through the recently established Gemini AO Working Group and the GNAO Science Team, as well as external instrument teams. The modular design of GNAO will enable a planned upgrade to a Ground Layer AO (GLAO) mode when combined with an Adaptive Secondary Mirror (ASM). By enhancing the natural seeing by an expected factor of two, GLAO will vastly improve Gemini North's observing efficiency for seeing-limited instruments and strengthen its survey capabilities for multi-messenger astronomy.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1907.08169,
title = {Entering into the Wide Field Adaptive Optics Era on Maunakea},
author = {Gaetano Sivo and John Blakeslee and Jennifer Lotz and Henry Roe and Morten Andersen and Julia Scharwachter and David Palmer and Scot Kleinman and Andy Adamson and Paul Hirst and Eduardo Marin and Laure Catala and Marcos van Dam and Stephen Goodsell and Natalie Provost and Ruben Diaz and Inger Jorgensen and Hwihyun Kim and Marie Lemoine-Busserole and Celia Blain and Mark Chun and Mark Ammons and Julian Christou and Charlotte Bond and Suresh Sivanandam and Paolo Turri and Peter Wizinowich and Carlos Correia and Benoit Neichel and Jean-Pierre Veran and Simone Esposito and Masen Lamb and Thierry Fusco and Francois Rigaut and Eric Steinbring},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.08169},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
12 pages, 6 figures, ASTRO 2020 Decadal Survey