Abstract

It is well known the useful field-of-view of an adaptive optics system is quite small. For astronomical observation in the visible the size of the isoplanatic patch, θ₀, is of the order of 10 μrad. After adaptive optics compensation of turbulence induced wavefront distortion, the mean-square residual wavefront distortion for the imaging of a point source that is an angular distance θ from the direction to the adaptive optics beacon, will have a value of (θ/θ₀)^5/3 rad². This suggests that the useful field-of-view is limited by anisoplanatism to a diameter of about 2θ₀.

© 1992 Optical Society of America