About the Subaru Telescope
Observational instruments
188-Element Adaptive Optics (AO)
Subaru's 188-element AO system includes laser guide star technology, which allows observers to use a laser as an artificial star when there is no bright guide star illuminating an object-star. The development of the 188-element system was a product of continual improvements to Subaru's earlier 36-element AO system, which was designed, produced, and then made available to astronomers worldwide in 1990. The current 188-element AO system successfully passed its first test on October 9, 2006 and replaces the older system. This 188-element AO mounts at the infrared Nasmyth focus.
Fast Facts
Definition:
- Second-generation adaptive optics system
- Main components
- A wavefront sensor that analyzes light from a guide star
- A beam splitter that channels the light to the wavefront sensor and the science instrument
- A 188-element deformable mirror capable of tiny adjustments to correct for the effects of turbulence
- Optimized for use with infrared cameras and spectrographs and being tested for use with optical instruments
Operation:
- Compensates for atmospheric turbulence.
- Selection of a guide star (a point of light) near the target object to use as a reference for measuring and correcting for the effects of turbulence, e.g., blurring, twinkling.
- Passage of the guide star's light beam from the telescope's primary mirror to the wavefront sensor, which measures the wavelengths around targeted objects.
- The wavefront sensor sends the light to a beam splitter, which channels part of it to the science instrument and part, to the control system, which measures the degree of turbulence.
- Based on the control system's measurements, it adjusts the surface shape of the 188-element deformable mirror, which makes very fine corrections for the effects of turbulence, thus facilitating sharp, high-resolution images
- Because air is moving, the AO system is a dynamic one, always adjusting to current conditions, almost in real time.
- Can operate in two modes
- Natural guide star (NGS) mode, when a "natural" star is used for analysis of atmospheric turbulence.
- Laser guide star (LGS) mode, when an "artificial" star is created near the target object. When AO 188 is used with the LGS, it is referred to as LGSAO (laser guide star with adaptive optics).
Applications:
- Always used with an instrument, e.g., IRCS, HiCIAO
- When used with another instrument, it contributes to:
- Studying objects that were previously unobservable, e.g., the detailed structure of faint distant galaxies, stellar populations of nearby galaxies
- Imaging the precise structures of disks around stars
- Detecting exoplanets
Specifics:
- Size and weight
- AO188 optical bench/base plate: 2100 mm x 1720 mm
- Weight: 4872 lbs. (2210 kg)
- Placement: Nasmyth focus (IR)
- Wavelength: .6 to 5 microns (optical to infrared)
Development:
- Subaru Telescope, NAOJ
- Notable: Subaru Telescope's LGS was the world's fourth laser guide star system for AO completed for an 8-10 m telescope, pioneering solid-state laser and optical fiber technology for AO.
- First generation AO 36 first light: 2002
- Second generation AO 188 first light: 2006