ARGOS
Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik
- Infrared/Submillimeter Astronomy -

ARGOS - The laser guide star for the LBT 		 
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ARGOS

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Beams on LBT Advanced Rayleigh guided Ground layer adaptive Optics System
Advanced Rayleigh guided Ground layer adaptive Optics System

The ARGOS projects will equip the LBT, the Large Binocular Telescope, with an up to date laser guide star and wavefront sensing facility. ARGOS will utilize multiple pulsed lasers to generate artificial guide stars. A total of six laser guide stars will be used to correct the ground layer turbulence above each of the LBT mirrors. The primary goal of the facility is to correct the atmospheric turbulence induced distortions, thus enhancing the imaging and spectroscopic capabilities for LUCIFER over a wide field of view. In contrast to usual single conjugated adaptive optics, ARGOS does not reach to the diffraction limit of the telescope. But it will be capable to reduce the seeing by a factor of 2-3 over a 4 arcmin field of view.

The system consists of:

  • Laser systems, each of them containing three powerful pulsed green lasers
  • Beam expanders to enlarge the lasers to a 40cm diameter and project them to sky
  • Wavefront sensors to detect the backscattered light from the beacons
  • The adaptive optics control of LBT’s deformable secondary mirrors

NEWS:

The ARGOS Lasers are ordered (July 2009)
(Images from the manufacturer)
InnoLas Nanio InnoLas Nanio
The InnoLas nanio series NANIO 532-18-Y
532nm, 18W at 10kHz

peltier test carrier pnCCD camera head
While the development of the peltier element based cooler for the wavefront sensor detector is in progress.... ...a system of the pnCCD arrived at our lab in Garching. (June 2009)
Visit of the Solar Tower at INAF during ARGOS consortium meeting in May 2009.
inspecting AGW unit it works!
LBT's adaptive secondary (about 15m above)
 is tested here with the AGW unit. 		Demonstration of the adaptive secondary. It works!
 
Reviewers
Dinner at Neuwirt

ARGOS Preliminary Design Review 17./18. Feb. 2009
left->right: Bob Fugate, Richard Myers, Enrico Fedrigo
Not shown: Francois Rigaut 		PDR Dinner
Ks image of NGC 1569 taken during commissioning with LUCIFER.
Lucifer installed on derotator
Ks image of NGC 1569 taken during commissioning with LUCIFER,
end 2008 / beginning 2009		 Lucifer installed on the SX derotator, Jan. 2009

Consortium

The ARGOS consortium is assembled from the LBT partners:
unordered
Max Planck Institut für extraterrestrische Physik,
 Garching, Germany
Max-Plack Institut für Astronomie,
 Heidelberg, Germany
Instituto nazionale di astrofisica,
 Oseervatorio astrofisico di Arcetri, Florence, Italy
Center for astronomical adaptive optics,
 University of Arizona
Landessternwarte Heidelberg,
 Germany
Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam,
 Germany
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie Bonn,
 Germany


 		 Max Planck Institut Halbleiter Labor, Germany

PNsensor, Germany
Large Binocular Telescope Observatory,
Tucson , Arizona


© Infrared and Submillimeter Astronomy Group at MPE
last update: 04/08/2009, editor of this page: Julian Ziegleder


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

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