MIGUEL LIZAOLA

DEVELOPING AN ASTRONOMICAL ADAPTIVE OPTICS DEMONSTRATION

CENTER FOR ADAPTIVE OPTICS

RESEARCH ADVISOR: ERIC STEINBRING

PRINCIPALE INVESTIGATOR: DR. SANDY FABER

UCSC LIAISON: LISA HUNTER

CC LIAISON: LAWRENCE YEE

ADAPTIVE OPTICS

WHAT DOES AO DO? NEPTUNE

WITHOUT AO WITH AO

http//cfao.ucolick.org/pggallery/neptune.html

HOW DOES IT WORK?

http://cfao.ucolick.org/images/aoscheme.gif

SIMULATION

INSTRUMENTS

TELESCOPE:

-10-INCH APERTURE

AO SYSTEM:

-TIP-TILT MIRROR

-DIGITAL CAMERAS

-SOFTWARE

PROJECTS

1-Create a manual for the telescope and adaptive optics system.

2- Compare simulations with images taken with our system.

3-Study binary stars and their characteristics.

MANUAL : COOKBOOK-Instructions for college students to understand

-Converted to HTML

-Will appear on the CfAO

-Test the “cookbook”

-Ship package to other CfAO institutions

OBSERVATIONS

BINARY STAR: SAO 44740-650 LIGHT YEARS AWAY

-MAG 7.58

-RA: 13:46:02.78

-DEC: +41:02:16.1

SIMULATION

PROCEDURE:

-Make computer simulation match the telescope and AO

-Compare data with simulation.

RESULTS

Observation(FWHM)

Simulation(FWHM) D/r0=10+/-2

Without AO (arcsec)

3.9+/-0.3 4.0

With AO (arcsec)

2.8+/-0.3 2.9

Improvement 40% 38%

C0NCLUSION

-The cookbook will serve as reference to those students who use this system. Further more, make the telescope and adaptive optics available at other educational institutions.

-Our studies with binary stars are not yet completed.

-The simulation with our specific parameters matches our observations and results.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSCFAO: ACCESS: Sandra Faber James Atkins Eric Steinbring Lawrence Yee Robert Cook Phil Crews Lisa Hunter Itchung Cheung Malika Moutawakkil Sonya Day

*****All ACCESS STUDENTS*****

Grants: ACCESS is founded by the National Institutes of Health (GM 51765) and UC Santa Cruz Transfer Partnership Program

“This work has been supported in part or full by the National Science Foundation Science and Technology for Adaptive Optics, managed by the University of Santa Cruz under cooperative agreement No. AST-987683”