Related papers: Characterizing the Adaptive Optics Off-Axis Point-…
We build on a long-standing tradition in astronomical adaptive optics (AO) of specifying performance metrics and error budgets using linear systems modeling in the spatial-frequency domain. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive tool for…
Large area surveys will dominate the forthcoming decades of astronomy and their success requires characterizing thousands of discoveries through additional observations at higher spatial or spectral resolution, and at complementary cadences…
High quality, repeatable point-spread functions are important for science cases like direct exoplanet imaging, high-precision astrometry, and high-resolution spectroscopy of exoplanets. For such demanding applications, the initial on-sky…
We used the Robo-AO laser adaptive optics system to image 99 main sequence and subgiant stars that have Kepler-detected asteroseismic signals. Robo-AO allows us to resolve blended secondary sources at separations as close as 0.15" that may…
Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors for both solar and laser guide star adaptive optics (with elongated spots) need to observe extended objects. Correlation techniques have been successfully employed to measure the wavefront gradient in solar…
The development of the Keck All sky Precision Adaptive optics (KAPA) project was initiated in September 2018 to upgrade the Keck I adaptive optics (AO) system to enable laser tomography adaptive optics (LTAO) with a four laser guide star…
Substellar companions such as exoplanets and brown dwarfs exhibit changes in brightness arising from top-of-atmosphere inhomogeneities, providing insights into their atmospheric structure and dynamics. This variability can be measured in…
Existing and planned optical telescopes and surveys can detect artificially-illuminated objects comparable in total brightness to a major terrestrial city out to the outskirts of the Solar System. Orbital parameters of Kuiper belt objects…
Astronomical data are typically irregular in time, e.g. the space (HIPPARCOS/TYCHO, KEPLER, GAIA, WISE etc.) and ground-based CCD (NSVS, ASAS, CRTS, SuperWASP etc.) and photographic (Harvard, Sonneberg, Odessa etc.) photometrical surveys.…
Astronomical adaptive optics systems with open-loop deformable mirror control have recently come on-line. In these systems, the deformable mirror surface is not included in the wavefront sensor paths, and so changes made to the deformable…
Adaptive Optics observations have dramatically improved the quality and versatility of high angular resolution measurements of the center of our Galaxy. In this paper, we quantify the quality of our Adaptive Optics observations and report…
Bright single and binary stars were observed at the 4.1-m telescope with a fast electron-multiplication camera in the regime of partial turbulence correction by the visible-light adaptive optics system. We compare the angular resolution…
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…
A rationale is presented for the use of a relatively low-altitude Rayleigh Laser Guide Star to provide partial adaptive optics correction across a large fraction of the sky on the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope. The scientific motivation…
Sky-coverage in laser-assisted AO observations largely depends on the system's capability to guide on the faintest natural guide-stars possible. Here we give an up-to-date status of our natural guide-star processing tailored to the…
Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) yields measurement parameters (number of molecules, diffusion time) that characterize the concentration and kinetics of fluorescent molecules within a supposedly known observation volume. Absolute…
In ground-based astronomy, Adaptive Optics (AO) is a pivotal technique, engineered to correct wavefront phase distortions and thereby enhance the quality of the observed images. Integral to an AO system is the wavefront sensor (WFS), which…
Many adaptive optics systems operate by measuring the distortion of the wavefront in one wavelength range and performing the scientific observations in a second, different wavelength range. One common technique is to measure wavefront…
Real-time seeing estimation at the focus of a telescope is nowadays strongly emphasized as this knowledge virtually drives the dimensioning of adaptive optics systems and instrument operational aspects. In this context we study the interest…
The observed distribution of galaxies has local transverse isotropy around the line-of- sight (LOS) with respect to the observer. The difference in the statistical clustering signal along and across the line-of-sight encodes important…