Analysis of on-sky MOAO performance of CANARY using natural guide stars

The first on-sky results obtained by CANARY, the multi-object adaptive optics (MOAO) demonstrator, are analysed. The data were recorded at the William Herschel Telescope, at the end of September 2010. We describe the command and calibrations algorithms used during the run and present the observing c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) 2014-09, Vol.569, p.1-19
Main Authors: Vidal, Fabrice, Gendron, Éric, Rousset, Gérard, Morris, Tim, Basden, Alastair, Myers, Richard, Brangier, Matthieu, Chemla, Fanny, Dipper, Nigel, Gratadour, Damien, Henry, David, Hubert, Zoltan, Longmore, Andy, Martin, Olivier, Talbot, Gordon, Younger, Eddy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Astrophysics
atmospheric effects
Budgeting
Buffers
Error analysis
Errors
instrumentation: adaptive optics
Physics
Slopes
Stars
techniques: high angular resolution
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Summary:The first on-sky results obtained by CANARY, the multi-object adaptive optics (MOAO) demonstrator, are analysed. The data were recorded at the William Herschel Telescope, at the end of September 2010. We describe the command and calibrations algorithms used during the run and present the observing conditions. The processed data are MOAO-loop engaged or disengaged slopes buffers, comprising the synchronised measurements of the four natural guide stars (NGS) wavefront sensors running in parallel, and near infrared (IR) images. We describe the method we use to establish the error budget of CANARY. We are able to evaluate the tomographic and the open loop errors, having median values around 216 nm and 110 nm respectively. In addition, we identify an unexpected residual quasi-static field aberration term of mean value 110 nm. We present the detailed error budget analysed for three sets of data for three different asterisms. We compare the experimental budgets with the numerically simulated ones and demonstrate a good agreement. We find also a good agreement between the computed error budget from the slope buffers and the measured Strehl ratio on the IR images, ranging between 10% and 20% at 1530 nm. These results make us confident in our ability to establish the error budget of future MOAO instruments.
ISSN:0004-6361
1432-0746
1432-0756
DOI:10.1051/0004-6361/201322991