Abstract

Adaptive optics systems are still a relatively new technology. As such, characterization of their performance under a given set of conditions still has many uncertainties. For instance, even though many variables for a particular imaging scenario are uncontrollable, such as seeing conditions, object brightness (visual magnitude), and object size/distance, many other Adaptive Optics System (AOS) parameters can be controlled by the system operator. These include system integration time, imaging and Wavefront Sensor (WFS) wavelengths, closed loop bandwidth, image exposure time, and others. Selecting parameter settings for these variables to yield the “best quality” image is far from obvious. Further, what does the “best quality” image mean?

© 1996 Optical Society of America