Abstract

An experiment to investigate the basic characteristics of atmospheric turbulence has been conducted on the 107-in. telescope at McDonald Observatory in west Texas. A Hartmann wavefront sensor having about 1000 subapertures in the unobscured portion of the aperture has been used to measure the phase and intensity of starlight over the aperture of the telescope. An image of the star is recorded simultaneously with the pupil plane information. A gated image intensifier allows 1-ms exposures, sufficient to freeze the atmosphere. Simultaneous measurements of r₀, using a separate instrument, and measurements of temperature differences along the optical path within the telescope have also been made. The experimental design is discussed along with an overview of the results of the data analysis.

© 1988 Optical Society of America