Gemini multiconjugate adaptive optics system review - I. Design, trade-offs and integration

François O. Rigaut*, Benoit Neichel, Maxime Boccas, Céline d'Orgeville, Fabrice Vidal, Marcos A. van Dam, Gustavo Arriagada, Vincent Fesquet, Ramon L. Galvez, Gaston Gausachs, Chad Cavedoni, Angelic W. Ebbers, Stan Karewicz, Eric James, Javier Lührs, Vanessa Montes, Gabriel Perez, William N. Rambold, Roberto Rojas, Shane WalkerMatthieu Bec, Gelys Trancho, Michael Sheehan, Benjamin Irarrazaval, Corinne Boyer, Brent L. Ellerbroek, Ralf Flicker, Damien Gratadour, Aurea Garcia-Rissmann, Felipe Daruich

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    151 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The Gemini multiconjugate adaptive optics system (GeMS) at the Gemini South telescope in Cerro Pachón is the first sodium-based multilaser guide star (LGS) adaptive optics system. It uses five LGSs and two deformable mirrors to measure and compensate for atmospheric distortions. The GeMS project started in 1999, and saw first light in 2011. It is now in regular operation, producing images close to the diffraction limit in the near-infrared, with uniform quality over a field of view of two square arcminutes. This paper is the first one in a two-paper review of GeMS. It describes the system, explains why and how it was built, discusses the design choices and trade-offs, and presents the main issues encountered during the course of the project. Finally, we briefly present the results of the system first light.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)2361-2375
    Number of pages15
    JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
    Volume437
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jan 2014

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