Related papers: Gemini North Adaptive Optics (GNAO) facility overv…
The Extremely Large Telescope and the Thirty Meter Telescope will use state of the art multiconjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) systems to obtain the full D4 advantage that their apertures can provide. However, to reach the full astrometric…
The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) entered on-sky commissioning and had its first-light at the Gemini South (GS) telescope in November 2013. GPI is an extreme adaptive optics (XAO), high-contrast imager and integral-field spectrograph dedicated…
GRAVITY is a second generation instrument for the VLT Interferometer, designed to enhance the near-infrared astrometric and spectro-imaging capabilities of VLTI. Combining beams from four telescopes, GRAVITY will provide an astrometric…
Wide Field Adaptive Optics (WFAO) systems are among the most sophisticated AO systems available today on large telescopes. The knowledge of the vertical spatio-temporal distribution of the wind speed (WS) and direction (WD) are fundamental…
We present the first use of the Gemini North laser guide star adaptive optics (LGS AO) system and an integral field unit (IFU) to measure the stellar velocity dispersion of the host of a luminous quasar. The quasar PG1426+015 (z=0.086) was…
Traditional wavefront control in high-energy, high-intensity laser systems usually lacks real-time capability, failing to address dynamic aberrations. This limits experimental accuracy due to shot-to-shot fluctuations and necessitates long…
We present in this proceeding the results of the test phase of the GRAVITY+ adaptive optics. This extreme AO will enable both high-dynamic range observations of faint companions (including exoplanets) thanks to a 40x40 sub-apertures…
In the recent Astro2020 Decadal Report, ''Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s'' Adaptive Optics (AO) was identified as a crucial technology for a variety of reasons. These included an emphasis on high-contrast…
The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) is an integral field spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope Unit Telescope 4, capable of laser guide star assisted and tomographic adaptive optics using the GALACSI module. Its observing…
The Gemini Planet Imager instrument's adaptive optics (AO) subsystem was designed specifically to facilitate high-contrast imaging. It features several new technologies, including computationally efficient wavefront reconstruction with the…
This article presents an overview of the US National Gemini Office (US NGO) and its role within the International Gemini Observatory user community. Throughout the years, the US NGO charter changed considerably to accommodate the evolving…
One important frontier for astronomical adaptive optics (AO) involves methods such as Multi-Object AO and Multi-Conjugate AO that have the potential to give a significantly larger field of view than conventional AO techniques. A second key…
Whether is ground-based or space-based, any optical instrument suffers from some amount of optical geometric distortion. Recently, the diffraction-limited image quality afforded by space-based telescopes and by Adaptive Optics (AO)…
The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a new facility, extreme adaptive optics (AO), coronagraphic instrument, currently being integrated onto the 8-meter Gemini South telescope, with the ultimate goal of directly imaging extrasolar planets. To…
This paper aims at giving an update on the most versatile adaptive optics fed instrument to date, the well known and successful NACO . Although NACO is only scheduled for about two more years at the Very Large Telescope (VLT), it keeps on…
We present a multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) system simulator bench, HeNOS (Herzberg NFIRAOS Optical Simulator). HeNOS is developed to validate the performance of the MCAO system for the Thirty Meter Telescope, as well as to…
MagAO is the new adaptive optics system with visible-light and infrared science cameras, located on the 6.5-m Magellan "Clay" telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. The instrument locks on natural guide stars (NGS) from…
The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is an integral field spectrograph (IFS) and coronagraph that is one of the few current generation instruments optimized for high-contrast direct imaging of substellar companions. The instrument is in the…
MAVIS (MCAO-Assisted Visible Imager and Spectrograph) is an instrument proposed for the VLT Adaptive Optics Facility (AOF), which is currently in the phase-A conceptual design study. It will be the first instrument performing…
These lectures take a look at how observations with adaptive optics (AO) are beginning to influence our understanding of active galactic nuclei (AGN). By focussing on a few specific topics, the aim is to highlight the different ways in…