The ORP on-sky community access program for adaptive optics instrumentation development

T. Morris; J. Osborn; M. Reyes; I. Montilla; G. Rousset; E. Gendron; T. Fusco; B. Neichel; S. Esposito; P. J. V. Garcia; C. Kulcsar; C. Correia; J.-L. Beuzit; N. A. Bharmal; L. Bardou; L. Staykov; D. Bonaccini Calia

doi:10.1117/12.2562805

13 December 2020 The ORP on-sky community access program for adaptive optics instrumentation development

T. Morris, J. Osborn, M. Reyes, I. Montilla, G. Rousset, E. Gendron, T. Fusco, B. Neichel, S. Esposito, P. J. V. Garcia, C. Kulcsar, C. Correia, J.-L. Beuzit, N. A. Bharmal, L. Bardou, L. Staykov, D. Bonaccini Calia

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 11448, Adaptive Optics Systems VII; 114485H (2020) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2562805
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2020, Online Only

Conference Poster

Abstract

On-sky testing of new instrumentation concepts is required before they can be incorporated within facility-class instrumentation with certainty that they will work as expected within a real telescope environment. Increasingly, many of these concepts are not designed to work in seeing-limited conditions and require an upstream adaptive optics system for testing. Access to on-sky AO systems to test such systems is currently limited to a few research groups and observatories worldwide, leaving many concepts unable to be tested. A pilot program funded through the H2020 OPTICON program offering up to 15 nights of on-sky time at the CANARY Adaptive Optics demonstrator is currently running but this ends in 2021. Pre-run and on-sky support is provided to visitor experiments by the CANARY team. We have supported 6 experiments over this period, and plan one more run in early 2021. We have recently been awarded for funding through the H2020 OPTICON-RADIO PILOT call to continue and extend this program up until 2024, offering access to CANARY at the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope and 3 additional instruments and telescopes suitable for instrumentation development. Time on these facilities will be open to researchers from across the European research community and time will be awarded by answering a call for proposals that will be assessed by an independent panel of instrumentation experts. Unlike standard observing proposals we plan to award time up to 2 years in advance to allow time for the visitor instrument to be delivered. We hope to announce the first call in mid-2021. Here we describe the facilities offered, the support available for on-sky testing and detail the eligibility and application process.

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T. Morris, J. Osborn, M. Reyes, I. Montilla, G. Rousset, E. Gendron, T. Fusco, B. Neichel, S. Esposito, P. J. V. Garcia, C. Kulcsar, C. Correia, J.-L. Beuzit, N. A. Bharmal, L. Bardou, L. Staykov, and D. Bonaccini Calia "The ORP on-sky community access program for adaptive optics instrumentation development", Proc. SPIE 11448, Adaptive Optics Systems VII, 114485H (13 December 2020); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2562805

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