A new slow focus sensor for GeMS

• The Gemini South 8-meter telescope's Multi Conjugate Adaptive Optics System GeMS is about to enter a new era of science with an entire new upgrade for its Natural Guide Star wave front sensor (NGS2). With NGS2 the limiting magnitude of the natural guide stars used for tip/tilt sensing is expected to increase from its current limit of 15.4 to 17+ in R-band. This will provide a much greater sky coverage over the current system. NGS2 is a complete replacement of the current Natural Guide Star wave front sensor (NGS). This presents an interesting challenge as the current NGS includes a Slow Focus Sensor (SFS) used to compensate for the sodium layer mean altitude variations. With the new NGS2 setup, this SFS will be removed and a suitable replacement must be found. Within the Gemini environment there exist two facility wave front sensors, Peripheral Wave Front Sensors one and two (PWFS1 and PWFS2), that could act as an SFS. Only one of these (PWFS1) is located optically in front of the GeMS Adaptive Optics (AO) bench (Canopus). We are currently preparing this wave front sensor as the new SFS for GeMS under the NGS2 setup. The results of several nighttime and daytime tests show that PWFS1 will be an adequate SFS for GeMS in the NGS2 setup providing excellent sky coverage without compromising the GeMS Field of View (FoV).

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

AO

LGS

MCAO

Gems

Natural gems

Optical telescopes

Stars

Telescopes

Wavefronts

Altitude variation

Current limits

Field of views

Focus sensors

Multi-conjugate adaptive optics systems

Natural guide star

Wave front sensors

Adaptive optics

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