The Laser Guide Star Facility

The LGSF is a joint project in which ESO are building the laser room, beam relay and lanuch telescope while MPE and MPIA provide the laser itself. The photos & images about the LGSF project shown here (courtesy of ESO) are aimed to provide a brief overview of the entire project. More information may be found on ESO's Adaptive Opticspage.

Click on the images below to see larger versions.

A coil of photonic crystal fibre in the lab at MPE, with 10W of 589nm laser light injected into it.
A view of the launch telescope in the lab at MPE. This will be mouinted (without the metal frame holding it here) behind the secondary mirror of the 8.2-m UT4 telescope.
An inside view of the laser clean room which will be attached under the Nasmyth platform of the telescope. The room is about 6m long, providing space for the 2m x 1.5m laser bench in the centre.
A schematic drawing of a VLT unit telescope showing how the laser room, beam relay and launch telescope will fit onto the structure.
There is very little space behind the top ring for a launch telescope, so the design has to be very compact; but it must still expand the light from the fibre only a few microns across to fill the 50cm mirror. The baffle protects the structure from wind.
A photo inside the dome of the 8.2-m UT4, Yepun, shortly before its first light.
A photo showing all 4 uint telescopes at Paranal Observatory, Chile, with the almost completed Yepun at the front.