Near-focus high-sensitivity wavefront sensing

A new method of wavefront sensing that uses a pair of equally defocused images to derive the wavefront aberrations is presented. Unlike in conventional curvature-sensing systems, the sensor works in a near-focus regime where the transport of intensity equation is not valid, and, unlike in phase-diversity methods, a non-iterative algorithm is used to infer the wavefront aberrations. The sensor designs outlined only require a small number of detector pixels: two designs with five and nine pixels per plane are analysed, and the nine-element sensor (NES) is shown to have a competitive measurement sensitivity compared with existing low-order astronomical wavefront sensors. The NES is thus well suited to applications such as adaptive optics for the individual telescopes in an optical interferometer array.     

Evaluation of a Wavefront Sensing Concept for a Full Solar Disk Adaptive Optics System

Solar scintillations were investigated as a method of detecting seeing-dependent wavefront curvature variations for solar adaptive optics. The method is applicable to full-disk averaged, adaptive corrections of large-scale near-field seeing distortions. As a test case, seeing measurements were carried out on a single small adaptive mirror, representing one element of what would be a large multielement adaptive array. All observations showed a greater than 5× reduction of seeing distortions as a result of this wavefront correction.     

Improvements on the optical differentiation wavefront sensor

We describe a novel concept for high-resolution wavefront sensing based on the optical differentiation wavefront sensor (OD). It keeps the advantages of high resolution, adjustable dynamic range, ability to work with polychromatic sources and, in addition, it achieves good performance in wavefront reconstruction when the field is perturbed by scintillation. Moreover, this new concept can be used as multi-object wavefront sensor in multiconjugate adaptive optics systems. It is able to provide high resolution and high sampling operation, which is of great interest for the projected extreme adaptive optics systems for large telescopes.     

一种基于RTAI实时操作系统的相关跟踪处理机

引入倾斜校正自适应光学技术到月球激光测距中,详细介绍了倾斜校正自适应光学的相关跟踪原理,给出了一种基于实时操作系统RTAI的相关跟踪波前处理机的设计结果.该波前处理机采用绝对差分算法,使用通用CPU,基于Linux硬实时扩展系统BTAI实现对波前的实时处理.实验结果证明,它的相关跟踪处理帧频为1 KHz,并且具有集成度...     

基于PCl-Express高速图像采集卡对扩展源大气倾斜量的实时补偿

为能够实时补偿大气湍流对月球激光测距带来的渡前倾斜量误差,采用相关跟踪自适应光学系统,并根据其大计算量、高实时性的要求,创新地设计了基于PCI-Express高速图像采集卡及其硬实时操作系统驱动程序,完成对扩展源目标大气倾斜量的实时补偿.详细介绍了整体系统的软硬件设计,给出了一种PCI-Express高速图像采集卡设计结果及其RTAI实时驱动程序的软件设计结果,完成了进一步提高图像传输速度,减小相关跟踪系统系统延迟,提高系统响应带宽的目标,最终实现了图像数据的实时传输(≤28 μS)及波前倾斜量的实时补偿(≤348 μS).     

Wide-field tracking with zenith-pointing telescopes

Equipped with a suitable optical relay system, telescopes employing low-cost fixed primary mirrors could point and track while delivering high-quality images to a fixed location. Such an optical tracking system would enable liquid-mirror telescopes to access a large area of sky and employ infrared detectors and adaptive optics. Such telescopes could also form the elements of an array in which light is combined either incoherently or interferometrically. Tracking of an extended field requires correction of all aberrations including distortion, field curvature and tilt. A specific design is developed that allows a 10-m liquid-mirror telescope to track objects for as long as 30 min and to point as far as 4° from the zenith, delivering a distortion-free diffraction-limited image to a stationary detector, spectrograph or interferometric beam combiner.     

Pseudo-infinite guide stars for multi-conjugated adaptive optics on extremely large telescopes

We introduce a novel concept to sense the wavefront for adaptive optics purposes in astronomy using a conventional laser beacon. The concept we describe involves treating the light scattered in the mesospheric sodium layer as if it comes from multiple rings located at infinity. Such a concept resembles an inverse Bessel beam and is particularly suitable for multi-conjugated adaptive optics on extremely large telescopes. In fact, as the sensing process uses light apparently coming from infinity, some problems linked to the finite distance and vertical extent of the guide source are solved. Since such a technique is able to sense a wavefront solely in the radial direction, we propose furthermore a novel wavefront sensor by combining the inverse Bessel beam approach with the recently introduced z -invariant technique for a pseudo-infinite guide star sensor.     

Prospects for the GLAS Rayleigh laser beacon on the 4.2-m WHT

The scientific exploitation of adaptive optics (AO) with natural guide stars is severely constrained by the limited presence of bright guide stars for wavefront sensing. Use of a laser beam as an alternative means to provide a source for wavefront sensing has the potential of drastically improving the sky coverage for AO. For this reason at the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope a project was started to develop a Rayleigh laser beacon to work together with the existing NAOMI adaptive optics instrumentation and the OASIS integral field spectrograph. This paper presents the rationale for this development, highlights some of the technical aspects, and gives some expected performance measures.     

Shift-and-add reconstruction of solar granulation images

To restore an atmospherically degraded image of solar granulation the shift-and-add (SAA) method is applied to its specklegrams. It is the first time, to the best of our knowledge, that such a technique has been used for image reconstruction of solar granulation, a largely extended target. SAA, therefore, enables us to monitor restored images of solar granulation in a simple and fast way.     

High-Spatial-Resolution Imaging Combining High-Order Adaptive Optics,Frame Selection,and Speckle Masking Reconstruction

We present, for the first time, high-spatial-resolution observations combining high-order adaptive optics (AO), frame selection, and post-facto image correction via speckle masking. The data analysis is based on observations of solar active region NOAA 10486 taken with the Dunn Solar Telescope (DST) at the Sacramento Peak Observatory (SPO) of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) on 29 October 2003. The high Strehl ratio encountered in AO corrected short-exposure images provides highly improved signal-to-noise ratios leading to a superior recovery of the object’s Fourier phases. This allows reliable detection of small-scale solar features near the diffraction limit of the telescope. Speckle masking imaging provides access to high-order wavefront aberrations, which predominantly originate at high atmospheric layers and are only partially corrected by the AO system. In addition, the observations provided qualitative measures of the image correction away from the lock point of the AO system. We further present a brief inspection of the underlying imaging theory discussing the limitations and prospects of this multi-faceted image reconstruction approach in terms of the recovery of spatial information, photometric accuracy, and spectroscopic applications.The editors apologize to the authors: due to a misunderstanding during the editorial process, the publication of this paper has been delayed.     

低对比度扩展目标跟踪算法

针对如太阳表面米粒结构和太阳黑子这类低对比度扩展目标，研究了互相关因子和绝对差分两种跟踪算法的有效性，并给出了根据所采集的图像进行后处理所得到的小整体倾斜信号，此外还比较了去除整体倾斜前后的太阳表面米粒结构长曝光像的对比度。     

An iterative wavefront sensing algorithm for high-contrast imaging systems

Wavefront sensing from multiple focal plane images is a promising technique for high-contrast imaging systems.However,the wavefront error of an optics system can be properly reconstructed only when it is very small.This paper presents an iterative optimization algorithm for the direct measurement of large static wavefront errors from only one focal plane image.We first measure the intensity of the pupil image to get the pupil function of the system and acquire the aberrated image on the focal plane with a p...     

Atmospheric and adaptive optics

Atmospheric optics is the study of optical effects induced by the atmosphere on light propagating from distant sources. Of particular concern to astronomers is atmospheric turbulence, which limits the performance of ground-based telescopes. The past two decades have seen remarkable growth in the capabilities and performance of adaptive optics (AO) systems. These opto-mechanical systems actively compensate for the blurring effect of the Earth’s turbulent atmosphere. By sensing, and correcting, wavefront distortion introduced by atmospheric index-of-refraction variations, AO systems can produce images with resolution approaching the diffraction limit of the telescope at near-infrared wavelengths. This review highlights the physical processes and fundamental relations of atmospheric optics that are most relevant to astronomy, and discusses the techniques used to characterize atmospheric turbulence. The fundamentals of AO are then introduced and the many types of advanced AO systems that have been developed are described. The principles of each are outlined, and the performance and limitations are examined. Aspects of photometric and astrometric measurements of AO-corrected images are considered. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the challenges related to current and future AO systems, particularly those that will equip the next generation of large, ground-based optical and infrared telescopes.     

Determination of the profile of atmospheric optical turbulence strength from SLODAR data

Slope Detection and Ranging (SLODAR) is a technique for the measurement of the vertical profile of atmospheric optical turbulence strength. Its main applications are astronomical site characterization and real-time optimization of imaging with adaptive optical correction. The turbulence profile is recovered from the cross-covariance of the slope of the optical phase aberration for a double star source, measured at the telescope with a wavefront sensor (WFS). Here, we determine the theoretical response of a SLODAR system based on a Shack–Hartmann WFS to a thin turbulent layer at a given altitude, and also as a function of the spatial power spectral index of the optical phase aberrations. Recovery of the turbulence profile via fitting of these theoretical response functions is explored. The limiting resolution in altitude of the instrument and the statistical uncertainty of the measured profiles are discussed. We examine the measurement of the total integrated turbulence strength (the seeing) from the WFS data and, by subtraction, the fractional contribution from all turbulence above the maximum altitude for direct sensing of the instrument. We take into account the effects of noise in the measurement of wavefront slopes from centroids and the form of the spatial structure function of the atmospheric optical aberrations.     

基于四棱锥传感器的波前检测仿真设计

波前检测是天文望远镜自适应光学中的重要环节。四棱锥作为一种新型的波前检测元件,与其他传统的波前传感器相比,具有较高的灵敏度。特别是对于光干涉或拼接镜面望远镜而言,四棱锥波前传感器能够被用来检测子望远镜或子镜面之间的相对光程差,从而为干涉(或共相)的实现提供有效的检测信号。在分析四棱锥波前检测原理的基础上,阐述了单孔径条件下波前倾斜检测及双孔径干涉条件下相对光程差检测的软件仿真设计和阶段性成果,并简述了下一阶段的研究计划。     

Near Real-Time Image Reconstruction

In recent years, post-facto image-processing algorithms have been developed to achieve diffraction-limited observations of the solar surface. We present a combination of frame selection, speckle-masking imaging, and parallel computing which provides real-time, diffraction-limited, 256×256 pixel images at a 1-minute cadence. Our approach to achieve diffraction limited observations is complementary to adaptive optics (AO). At the moment, AO is limited by the fact that it corrects wavefront abberations only for a field of view comparable to the isoplanatic patch. This limitation does not apply to speckle-masking imaging. However, speckle-masking imaging relies on short-exposure images which limits its spectroscopic applications. The parallel processing of the data is performed on a Beowulf-class computer which utilizes off-the-shelf, mass-market technologies to provide high computational performance for scientific calculations and applications at low cost. Beowulf computers have a great potential, not only for image reconstruction, but for any kind of complex data reduction. Immediate access to high-level data products and direct visualization of dynamic processes on the Sun are two of the advantages to be gained.     

ALFA: Adaptive Optics for the Calar Alto Observatory Optics, Control Systems, and Performance

The adaptive optics system ALFA differs in some aspects from systems like ADONIS and PUEO which have delivered scientific results since years. Interchangeable lenslet arrays with different numbers of subapertures and a deformable mirror with many more actuators than the number of corrected modesresult in some peculiarities in the calibration of the system and the reconstruction of incident wavefronts.We describe the design of ALFA's optics and its modal control architecture with a focus on a comparative study of the performance of different mode sets used to correct the wavefront aberrations. An outlook on our plans to improve and simplify the use of ALFA is given.The last section is dedicated to issues related to observing with ALFA in its present state. Expected Strehl ratios for different seeing conditions and guide star magnitudes are summarized in a table. AO observations in general, direct imaging and doing spectroscopywith ALFA in particular are discussed.     

The GREGOR adaptive optics system

The new 1.5‐m German solar telescope GREGOR at the Observatorio del Teide, Tenerife, is equipped with an integrated adaptive optics system. Although partly still in the commissioning phase, the system is already being used used for most science observations. It is designed to provide diffraction‐limited observations in the visible‐light regime for seeing better than 1.2″. We describe the AO system including the optical design, software, wavefront reconstruction, and performance (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Adaptive Optics Image Restoration Based on Frame Selection and Multi-frame Blind Deconvolution

Restricted by the observational condition and the hardware, adaptive optics can only make a partial correction of the optical images blurred by atmospheric turbulence. A postprocessing method based on frame selection and multi-frame blind deconvolution is proposed for the restoration of high-resolution adaptive optics images. By frame selection we mean we first make a selection of the degraded (blurred) images for participation in the iterative blind deconvolution calculation, with no need of any a priori knowledge, and with only a positivity constraint. This method has been applied to the restoration of some stellar images observed by the 61-element adaptive optics system installed on the Yunnan Observatory 1.2m telescope. The experimental results indicate that this method can effectively compensate for the residual errors of the adaptive optics system on the image, and the restored image can reach the diffraction-limited quality.     

2.16m望远镜红外自适应光学系统的误差和性能分析

在自适应光学系统中，波前探测器的噪声、未完全补偿湍流所引起的误差以及变形镜的拟合误差是主要的误差源．本文针对已经建立的2．16m望远镜红外自适应光学系统，从伺服控制系统的角度分析了该系统的闭环噪声、大气湍流引起的误差以及该系统的闭环总体误差．该系统的闭环总体误差是光强及系统闭环带宽的函数．本文还分析了该系统的有效性以及对大气湍流不同改善程度情况下光强与闭环带宽的关系．并在此基础上给出了该系统的最佳带宽选取及系统的极限工作星等．