Abstract

The Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg is constructing a laser guide star atmospheric compensation system for the 3.5m Calar Alto telescope. The system consists of a tilt compensation loop, a high-order adaptive optics loop, and a sodium wavelength dye laser. These subsystems are to be fully integrated into the observatory control software system. The hardware is to be installed at the telescope and testing begun in the spring of 1996. This paper deals with several aspects of the design of this system as well as reporting results from subsystem testing.

© 1995 Optical Society of America