First observations on the 127-element adaptive optical system for 1.8m telescope

Abstract

The 127-element adaptive optical system, which consists of a tracking loop with a tip-tilt mirror, a tracking system and a tracking processor, and a wavefront correction loop with a 127-element deformable mirror, a Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor, and a wavefront processor, had been developed and integrated into the 1.8m astronomical telescope in September 2009. The First observations on the high resolution imaging for the stars had been done from September 23 2009 in the first light to March 2010. In this paper, the 127-element adaptive optical system for 1.8m telescope is described briefly and the star observation results in the first run are reported. The results show the angular resolution of the system can attain or approach the diffraction limit of 1.8m telescope at I band (700nm-1000nm) and J band (1000nm-1700nm).