Related papers: The ALFA Laser: Beam Relay and Control System
Traditional radio telescopes use large, steel dishes to observe radio sources. The LOFAR radio telescope is different, and uses tens of thousands of fixed, non-movable antennas instead, a novel design that promises ground-breaking research…
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is the world's leading instrument for high-resolution imaging of the 0.3 to 10 mm wavelength sky. This interferometer exemplifies successful international collaboration even down to…
The results of a study of the accuracy characteristics and image quality on the SAO RAS optical telescopes, Zeiss-1000 and BTA, using the recently developed "Telescope Analyzer" device are described: a method for determining the…
In previous articles, we described how electromagnetic waves emitted from objects in the sky are collected by the ALMA antennas (Anatomy of ALMA), and how they are combined in order to produce images. Before these images can be processed,…
We have developed an atmospheric monitoring system for the Telescope Array experiment at Akeno Observatory. It consists of a Nd:YAG laser with an alt-azimuth shooting system and a small light receiver. This system is installed inside an air…
SOFIA is an airborne, gyroscopically stabilized 2.5m infrared telescope, mounted to a spherical bearing. Unlike its predecessors, SOFIA will work in absolute coordinates, despite its continually changing position and attitude. In order to…
The ISAC polarized beam facility uses a Ti:Sapphire laser for producing spin-polarized beams of short-lived radioactive isotopes, initially 7Li. The laser power and spectral content must be tightly controlled and monitored. The control…
The availability and performance of laser-based adaptive optics (AO) systems are strongly dependent on the power and quality of the laser beam before being projected to the sky. Frequent and time-consuming alignment procedures are usually…
The Asteroid Terrestrial impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) system consists of two 0.5m Schmidt telescopes with cameras covering 29 square degrees at plate scale of 1.86 arcsec per pixel. Working in tandem, the telescopes routinely survey the…
It is well-known how to control the spatial output from a laser, with most solutions to date involving customised intra-cavity elements in the form of apertures, diffractive optics and free-form mirrors. These optical elements require…
The Atacama Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Phasing Project (APP) has developed and deployed the hardware and software necessary to coherently sum the signals of individual ALMA antennas and record the aggregate sum in Very Long…
In stellar interferometry, image quality improves significantly with the inclusion of more telescopes and the use of phase closure. We demonstrate, using first coherent and then partially coherent white light, a compact and efficient…
We give an overview of the baseline detector system for SAFARI, the prime focal-plane instrument on board the proposed space infrared observatory, SPICA. SAFARI's detectors are based on superconducting Transition Edge Sensors (TES) to…
We present recent results on high-power guiding and laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) in the ELBA beamline at ELI Beamlines, using the L3-HAPLS laser system (13 J, 30 fs, 0.2 Hz). By employing self-waveguiding in a 20 cm plasma channel in…
Focal plane arrays (FPAs) promise robust solid-state beam steering for LiDAR and free-space optical communications. However, the need for external collimation lenses hinders chip-scale compactness. Discrete switching between FPA elements…
We report in detail the design process and performance of an auto-locking ultra-stable laser with sub-hertz linewidth at the first time. The laser frequency is automatically stabilized to an optical reference cavity with a home-made…
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is a new powerful tool for observing the Sun at high spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution. These capabilities can address a broad range of fundamental scientific questions in…
The Giant Magellan Telescope will use laser tomography adaptive optics to correct for atmospheric turbulence using artificial guide stars created in the sodium layer of the atmosphere (altitude ~95km). The sodium layer has appreciable…
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…
The adaptive module of the 4.1-m SOAR telescope, SAM, corrects ground-layer turbulence using a UV laser guide star. It has been commissioned in 2013 and it is in regular science operation since 2014. SAM works with the CCD imager covering a…