We report contrast measurements of a sodium resonance guide star against the daylight sky when observed through a tuned magneto-optical filter (MOF). The guide star was created by projection of a laser beam at 589.16 nm into the mesospheric sodium layer and the observations were made with a collocated 1.5-m telescope. While MOFs are used with sodium light detecting and ranging systems during the day to improve the signalto- noise ratio of the measurements, they have not so far been employed with laser guide stars to drive adaptive optics (AO) systems to correct atmospherically induced image blur. We interpret our results in terms of the performance of AO systems for astronomy, with particular emphasis on thermal infrared observations at the next generation of extremely large telescopes now being built. (C) 2016 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/624361 |
Date | 26 October 2016 |
Creators | Hart, Michael, Jefferies, Stuart M., Murphy, Neil |
Contributors | Univ Arizona, Coll Optic Sci, University of Arizona, College of Optical Sciences, 1630 East University Boulevard, Tucson, Arizona 85721, United StatesbUniversity of Hawai’i, Institute for Astronomy, 34 Ohia Ku Street, Pukalani, Hawaii 96768, United States, University of Hawai’i, Institute for Astronomy, 34 Ohia Ku Street, Pukalani, Hawaii 96768, United StatescGeorgia State University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 25 Park Place, Atlanta, Georgia 30303, United States, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mail Stop 180 600, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109, United States |
Publisher | SPIE-SOC PHOTO-OPTICAL INSTRUMENTATION ENGINEERS |
Source Sets | University of Arizona |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Article |
Rights | © 2016 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers |
Relation | http://astronomicaltelescopes.spiedigitallibrary.org/article.aspx?doi=10.1117/1.JATIS.2.4.040501 |
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