Abstract

A low order adaptive optics system for astronomical telescopes based on simple optics and commercially available key components can serve as more than an introduction to adaptive optics hardware and testing. For a one meter telescope, in the case of (D/r₀) between about five and eight, only five correction orders are required to produce significantly improved images. Such a low order system has been designed and built, using translating lenses to produce smooth aberration corrections. The system, called the AO-5, is meant to correct atmospheric turbulence in the visible and near infrared spectral regions. This paper reports on measurements of the corrections applied to synthesized atmospheric aberrations created by a turbulence generator. The AO-5 will installed in the summer of 1996 on one of the Meyer Foundation's dual 0.72 m Ritchey-Cretién telescopes on the 4300 meter level of Mount Evans, Colorado.

© 1996 Optical Society of America