Tuesday, 19 January 2010

angular resolution - Will the E-ELT use Adaptive Optics at visible wavelengths?

From looking at the E-ELT website, it appears that at first light, the AO will only work for near-IR. Specifically, the instrument that can use AO is the MICADO instrument. The description page for this instrument states




MICADO, or the Multi-Adaptive Optics Imaging Camera for Deep
Observations, is one of the first-light instruments for the European
Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) instrument and takes the Adaptive
Optics technique to the next level. It will be the first dedicated
imaging camera for the E-ELT and works with the multi-conjugate
adaptive optics module, MAORY.



MICADO will equip the E-ELT with a first light capability for
diffraction limited imaging at near-infrared wavelengths.




The MAORY instrument will be the specific AO instrument which, at first light will operate at




wavelengths from 0.8–2.4µm




So in short, the answer appears to be that the E-ELT will only have AO capabilities for near-IR at first light.



As to whether or not there are plans for visible AO capabilities, I couldn't find anything specific to that question. Given that first light for this project is 8 years away at best, I think that plans for future upgrades are tentative at best, and likely not easily accessible to those not on the project. I will say that while the MAORY instrument appears to be the intended AO system at first light, there is listed a second AO instrument called ATLAS that will eventually make its way onto the telescope. While I can find no specific details of this particular instrument, its possible that this will provide for visible AO.



On a tangentially related note, this telescope will also have active optics that will help to improve their imaging capabilities.

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