The Polychromatic Laser Guide Star for tilt measurement: progress report of the demonstrator at Observatoire de Haute Provence

Renaud Foy; Pierre Éric; Jérôme Eysseric; Françoise Foy; Thierry Fusco; Julien Girard; Auguste Le Van Suu; Sandrine Perruchot; Pierre Richaud; Yoann Richaud; Xavier Rondeau; Michel Tallon; Éric Thiébaut; Michel Boër

doi:10.1117/12.733997

24 September 2007 The Polychromatic Laser Guide Star for tilt measurement: progress report of the demonstrator at Observatoire de Haute Provence

Renaud Foy, Pierre Éric, Jérôme Eysseric, Françoise Foy, Thierry Fusco, Julien Girard, Auguste Le Van Suu, Sandrine Perruchot, Pierre Richaud, Yoann Richaud, Xavier Rondeau, Michel Tallon, Éric Thiébaut, Michel Boër

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6691, Astronomical Adaptive Optics Systems and Applications III; 66910R (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.733997
Event: Optical Engineering + Applications, 2007, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The Polychromatic Laser Guide Star aims at providing for the tilt measurement from a LGS without any natural guide star. Thus it allows adaptive optics to provide us with a full sky coverage. This is critical in particular to extend adaptive optics to the visible range, where isoplanatism is so small that the probability is negligible to find a natural star to measure the tilt. We report new results obtained within the framework of the Polychromatic LGS programme ELP-OA. Natural stars have been used to mimic the PLGS, in order to check the feasibility of using the difference in the tilt at two wavelengths to derive the tilt itself. We report results from the ATTILA experiment obtained at the 1.52 m telescope at Observatoire de Haute-Provence. Tilts derived from the differential tilts are compared with direct tilt measurements. The accuracy of the measurements is currently ≈ 1.5 Airy disk rms at 550 nm. These results prove the feasibility of the Polychromatic Laser Guide Star programme ELP-OA. New algorithms based on inverse problems under development within our programme would lead to smaller error bars by 1 magnitude, as soon as they will run fast enough. We describe the ELP-OA demonstrator which we are setting up at the same telescope, with a special emphasis on the optimization of the excitation process, which definitely has to rely on the two-photon excitation of sodium atoms in the mesosphere. We will describe the implementation at the telescope, including the projector device, the focal instrumentation and the NdYAG pumped dye lasers.

Citation Download Citation

Renaud Foy, Pierre Éric, Jérôme Eysseric, Françoise Foy, Thierry Fusco, Julien Girard, Auguste Le Van Suu, Sandrine Perruchot, Pierre Richaud, Yoann Richaud, Xavier Rondeau, Michel Tallon, Éric Thiébaut, and Michel Boër "The Polychromatic Laser Guide Star for tilt measurement: progress report of the demonstrator at Observatoire de Haute Provence", Proc. SPIE 6691, Astronomical Adaptive Optics Systems and Applications III, 66910R (24 September 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.733997

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available