The adaptive optics system of the 3.63 m AEOS telescope has a 941 actuator deformable mirror and is designed to work at visible wavelengths. It is one of the highest order operational adaptive optics systems. This paper details the design and performance of the system, including the Strehl ratio as a function of magnitude and the Strehl ratio as a function of the FWHM of the image. Sample images are also shown.
One limitation to using laser beacons to measure tilt is focus anisoplanatism. By use of a spectral representation for the atmospheric turbulence, the wave-front error is expressible as an integral over the distribution of turbulence with height. Results are calculated for turbulence profiles typical of astronomical sites. The decrease in Strehl ratio when a single laser guide star is used to measure tip-tilt is shown to be especially significant at visible wavelengths, precisely where tip-tilt is most difficult to obtain from natural stars.
Anisoplanatism is a primary source of photometric and astrometric error in single-conjugate adaptive optics. We present initial results of a project to model the off-axis optical transfer function in the adaptive optics system at the Keck II telescope. The model currently accounts for the effects of atmospheric anisoplanatism in natural guide star observations. The model for the atmospheric contribution to the anisoplanatic transfer function uses contemporaneous MASS/DIMM measurements. Here we present the results of a validation campaign using observations of naturally guided visual binary stars under varying conditions, parameterized by the r 0 and θ 0 parameters of the C 2 n atmospheric turbulence profile. We are working to construct a model of the instrumental field-dependent aberrations in the NIRC2 camera using an artificial source in the Nasmyth focal plane. We also discuss our plans to extend the work to laser guide star operation.
This paper describes the upgrades to the Keck II Adaptive Optics (K2 AO) system needed for laser guide star observing. The upgrade, including integration with the laser, is scheduled for completion in the winter of 2003. This upgrade includes the addition of a Low Bandwidth Wavefront Sensor (LBWFS) measuring focus and higher order terms, and a Lawrence Livermore National Lab quad-lens avalanche photodiode detector which monitors tip/tilt. Both observe a dim natural guide star. LBWFS corrections are applied as corrections to the high bandwidth wavefront sensor, which is observing the laser beacon. These subsystems drive focus stages, a deformable mirror, a tip/tilt mirror for the incoming starlight, and a tip/tilt mirror for pointing the propagating laser beam. Taken together, and in concert with the rest of the components of the K2 AO system, they provide the tools and the means to observe the universe as never before.
HD 8673 hosts a massive exoplanet in a highly eccentric orbit (e = 0.723). Based on two epochs of speckle interferometry a previous publication identified a candidate stellar companion. We observed HD 8673 multiple times with the 10 m Keck II telescope, the 5 m Hale telescope, the 3.63 m Advanced Electro-Optical System telescope, and the 1.5 m Palomar telescope in a variety of filters with the aim of confirming and characterizing the stellar companion. We did not detect the candidate companion, which we now conclude was a false detection, but we did detect a fainter companion. We collected astrometry and photometry of the companion on six epochs in a variety of filters. The measured differential photometry enabled us to determine that the companion is an early M dwarf with a mass estimate of 0.33-0.45 M . The companion has a projected separation of 10 AU, which is one of the smallest projected separations of an exoplanet host binary system. Based on the limited astrometry collected, we are able to constrain the orbit of the stellar companion to a semimajor axis of 35-60 AU, an eccentricity ⩽0.5, and an inclination of 75°-85°. The stellar companion has likely strongly influenced the orbit of the exoplanet and quite possibly explains its high eccentricity.
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