Related papers: Slow focus sensor for the Keck I laser guide star …
It is widely believed that adaptive optics only has a role in correcting turbulent wavefronts on large telescopes using very bright reference stars. Unfortunately these are very scarce and many astronomical targets require wavefront…
This paper describes the wave-front correction and image stabilisation system (CWS) developed for the Sunrise III balloon-borne telescope, and provides information about its performance as measured during the integration into the telescope…
For segmented telescopes, achieving fine co-focus adjustment is essential for realizing co-phase adjustment and maintenance, which involves adjusting the millimeter-scale piston between segments to fall within the capture range of the…
Context. Solar wavefront sensing has been a challenge for astrophysical instrumentalists, due to the low contrast between the Sun and the sky background compared to night-time observations, which limits the performance of adaptive optics…
Weak gravitational lensing (WL) is one of the most powerful techniques to learn about the dark sector of the universe. To extract the WL signal from astronomical observations, galaxy shapes must be measured and corrected for the point…
Sodium Laser Guide Stars (LGSs) are elongated sources due to the thickness and the finite distance of the sodium layer. The fluctuations of the sodium layer altitude and atom density profile induce errors on centroid measurements of…
We present performance simulations for a proposed visible-light, multi-conjugate adaptive optics system for the 10-meter W. M. Keck I telescope that aims to deliver near diffraction-limited angular resolution at optical wavelengths. Our…
Extremely Large Telescopes have overwhelmingly opted for the Pyramid wavefront sensor (PyWFS) over the more widely used Shack-Hartmann WaveFront Sensor (SHWFS) to perform their Single Conjugate Adaptive Optics (SCAO) mode. The PyWFS, a…
We present numerical characterizations of the wavefront sensing performance for few-mode photonic lantern wavefront sensors (PLWFSs). These characterizations include calculations of throughput, control space, sensor linearity, and an…
Weak gravitational lensing observations are a key science driver for the NASA Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). To validate the performance of the WFIRST infrared detectors, we have performed a laboratory emulation of weak…
Consistent operation of adaptive optics (AO) systems requires the use of a wavefront sensor (WFS) with high sensitivity and low noise. The nonlinear curvature WFS (nlCWFS) has been shown both in simulations and lab experiments to be more…
We propose a complete framework for the detection, astrometry, and photometry of faint companions from a sequence of adaptive optics corrected short exposures. The algorithms exploit the difference in statistics between the on-axis and…
Laser guide stars with adaptive optics allow astronomical image correction in the absence of a natural guide star. Single guide star systems with a star created in the earth's sodium layer can be used to correct the wavefront in the near…
Ground-layer adaptive optics (GLAO) systems offer the possibility of improving the "seeing" of large ground-based telescopes and increasing the efficiency and sensitivity of observations over a wide field-of-view. We explore the utility and…
Lens time delays are a powerful probe of cosmology, provided that the gravitational potential of the main deflector can be modeled with sufficient precision. Recent work has shown that this can be achieved by detailed modeling of the host…
The Zernike wavefront sensor (ZWFS) is a concept belonging to the wide class Fourier-filtering wavefront sensor (FFWFS). The ZWFS is known for its extremely high sensitivity while having a low dynamic range, which makes it a unique sensor…
The ESA Gaia spacecraft has two Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors (WFS) on its focal plane. They are required to refocus the telescope in-orbit due to launch settings and gravity release. They require bright stars to provide good signal to…
A method for producing a laser guide star wavefront sensor for adaptive optics with reduced focal anisoplanatism is presented. A theoretical analysis and numerical simulations have been carried out and the results are presented. The…
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is essential for autonomous driving systems, unmanned vehicles, and various location-based technologies, as it provides the precise geospatial information necessary for navigation and situational…
Dedicated 'Stage IV' observatories will soon observe the entire extragalactic sky, to measure the 'cosmic shear' distortion of galaxy shapes by weak gravitational lensing. To measure the apparent shapes of those galaxies, we present an…