ALFA: three years of experience in adaptive optics with a laser guide star

Stefan Hippler; Markus E. Kasper; Markus Feldt; Robert Weiss; Douglas P. Looze; Luzma Montoya; Jesus Aceituno; Thomas Ott; Richard I. Davies

doi:10.1117/12.390397

7 July 2000 ALFA: three years of experience in adaptive optics with a laser guide star

Stefan Hippler, Markus E. Kasper, Markus Feldt, Robert Weiss, Douglas P. Looze, Luzma Montoya, Jesus Aceituno, Thomas Ott, Richard I. Davies

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 4007, Adaptive Optical Systems Technology; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.390397
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2000, Munich, Germany

Abstract

The Max-Planck institutes for astronomy and for extraterrestrial physics run a high order adaptive optics system with a laser guide star facility at the Calar Alto 3.5- m telescope in southern Spain. This system, called ALFA, saw first light in September 1996. Today, ALFA can compensate for atmospheric turbulences with natural guide stars as faint as 13.5th magnitude in R-band. ALFA recently succeeded in overcoming this limiting magnitude with the deployment of its laser guide star. This paper briefly reviews the ALFA project and its progress over the last 3 years. We further discuss the impact of sodium-layer laser guide stars on wavefront sensing and present results obtained with both kinds of guide stars.

Citation Download Citation

Stefan Hippler, Markus E. Kasper, Markus Feldt, Robert Weiss, Douglas P. Looze, Luzma Montoya, Jesus Aceituno, Thomas Ott, and Richard I. Davies "ALFA: three years of experience in adaptive optics with a laser guide star", Proc. SPIE 4007, Adaptive Optical Systems Technology, (7 July 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.390397

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