Adaptive optics provides real time correction of wavefront disturbances on ground based telescopes. Optimizing control and performance is a key issue for ever more demanding instruments on ever larger telescopes affected not only by atmospheric turbulence, but also by vibrations, windshake and tracking errors. Linear Quadratic Gaussian control achieves optimal correction when provided with a temporal model of the disturbance. We present in this paper the first on-sky results of a Kalman filter based LQG control with vibration mitigation on the CANARY instrument at the Nasmyth platform of the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope. The results demonstrate a clear improvement of performance for full LQG compared with standard integrator control, and assess the additional improvement brought by vibration filtering with a tip-tilt model identified from on-sky data, thus validating the strategy retained on the instrument SPHERE at the VLT.

At a distance of ∼ 2 pc, our nearest brown dwarf neighbor, Luhman 16 AB, has been extensively studied since its discovery 3 years ago, yet its most fundamental parameter -the masses of the individual dwarfs -has not been constrained with precision. In this work we present the full astrometric orbit and barycentric motion of Luhman 16 AB and the first precision measurements of the individual component masses. We draw upon archival observations spanning 31 years from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Schmidt Telescope, the Deep Near-Infrared Survey of the Southern Sky (DENIS), public FORS2 data on the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and new astrometry from the Gemini South Multiconjugate Adaptive Optics System (GeMS). Finally, we include three radial velocity measurements of the two components from VLT/CRIRES, spanning one year. With this new data sampling a full period of the orbit, we use a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm to fit a 16-parameter model incorporating mutual orbit and barycentric motion parameters and constrain the individual masses to be 27.9

Recent advances in adaptive optics (AO) have led to the implementation of wide field-of-view AO systems. A number of wide-field AO systems are also planned for the forthcoming Extremely Large Telescopes. Such systems have multiple wavefront sensors of different types, and usually multiple deformable mirrors (DMs).Here, we report on our experience integrating cameras and DMs with the real-time control systems of two wide-field AO systems. These are CANARY, which has been operating on-sky since 2010, and DRAGON, which is a laboratory adaptive optics realtime demonstrator instrument. We detail the issues and difficulties that arose, along with the solutions we developed. We also provide recommendations for consideration when developing future wide-field AO systems.

We present in this paper an analysis of several tip-tilt on-sky data registered on adaptive optics systems installed on different telescopes (Gemini South, William Herschel Telescope, Large Binocular Telescope, Very Large Telescope, Subaru). Vibration peaks can be detected, and it is shown that their presence and location may vary, and that their origin is not always easy to determine. Mechanical solution that have been realized to mitigate vibrations are presented. Nevertheless, residual vibrations may still affect the instruments' performance, ranging from narrow high frequency vibration peaks to wide low frequency windshake-type perturbations. Power Spectral Densities (PSDs) of on-sky data are presented to evidence these features. When possible, indications are given regarding the gain in performance that could be achieved with adequate controllers accounting for vibration mitigation. Two examples of controller identification and design illustrate their ability to compensate for various types of disturbances (turbulence, windshake, vibration peaks, ...), showing a significant gain in performance.

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International audienceMany concepts of Wide Field AO (WFAO) systems are under development, especially for Extremely Large Tele­ scopes (ELTs) instruments. Multi-Object Adaptive Optics (MOAO) is one of these WFAO concepts, well suited to high redshifts galaxies observations in very wide Field of View (FoV). The E-ELT instrument EAGLE will use this approach. CANARY, the on-sky pathfinder for MOAO, has obtained the first compensated images on Natural Guide Stars (NGSs) at the William Herschel Telescope in September 2010. We present in this paper numerical and experimental validations of a Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) control. This is an appealing strategy that provides an optimal control in the sense of minimum residual phase variance. It also provides a unified formalism that allows accounting for multi WaveFront Sensors (WFSs) channels, both on Laser Guide Stars (LGSs) and NGSs, and for various disturbance sources (turbulence, vibrations). We show how the specific MOAO CANARY configuration can be embedded in a state-space framework. We present experimental laboratory validations that demonstrate the gain brought by tomographic LQG control for CANARY, together with comparative simulations. Model identification necessary for a robust on-sky operation is discussed