SciMeasure Wavefront Sensor Cameras and their Application in the Palomar Adaptive Optics System

SciMeasure, in collaboration with Emory University and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has developed a very versatile CCD controller for use in adaptive optics, optical interferometry, and other applications requiring high-speed readout rates and/or low read noise. The overall architecture of this controller system will be discussed and its performance using both EEV CCD39 and MIT/LL CCID-19 detectors will be presented. This controller is used in the adaptive optics system, developed by JPL, for the 200′′ Hale telescope at Palomar Mountain. Early diffraction-limited science results, recently achieved by the AO system, are presented. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of NASA through SBIR contracts NAS8–97195 and NAS8–98081. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.