MagAO: Status and Science

Abstract

"MagAO" is the adaptive optics instrument at the Magellan Clay telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. MagAO has a 585-actuator adaptive secondary mirror and 1000-Hz pyramid wavefront sensor, operating on natural guide stars from $R$-magnitudes of -1 to 15. MagAO has been in on-sky operation for 166 nights since installation in 2012. MagAO's unique capabilities are simultaneous imaging in the visible and infrared with VisAO and Clio, excellent performance at an excellent site, and a lean operations model. Science results from MagAO include the first ground-based CCD image of an exoplanet, demonstration of the first accreting protoplanets, discovery of a new wide-orbit exoplanet, and the first empirical bolometric luminosity of an exoplanet. We describe the status, report the AO performance, and summarize the science results. New developments reported here include color corrections on red guide stars for the wavefront sensor, a new field stop stage to facilitate VisAO imaging of extended sources; and eyepiece observing at the visible-light diffraction limit of a 6.5-m telescope. We also discuss a recent hose failure that led to a glycol coolant leak, and the recovery of the adaptive secondary mirror (ASM) after this recent (Feb.\ 2016) incident.

17 pages, 11 figures, presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation 2016. Update about the ASM at http://visao.as.arizona.edu/uncategorized/magao-r-day-219/

References in corpus (25)

• The SIMBAD astronomical database
• The Fourth US Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC4)
• Accreting Protoplanets in the LkCa 15 Transition Disk
• HD 106906 b: A planetary-mass companion outside a massive debris disk
• Directly Imaged L-T Transition Exoplanets in the Mid-Infrared
• Discovery of H-alpha Emission from the Close Companion Inside the Gap of Transitional Disk HD142527
• An Enigmatic Pointlike Feature within the HD 169142 Transitional Disk
• Thermal Infrared MMTAO Observations of the HR 8799 Planetary System
• Magellan Adaptive Optics first-light observations of the exoplanet beta Pic b. II. 3-5 micron direct imaging with MagAO+Clio, and the empirical bolometric luminosity of a self-luminous giant planet
• Diffraction-limited Visible Light Images of Orion Trapezium Cluster With the Magellan Adaptive Secondary AO System (MagAO)
• Magellan Adaptive Optics first-light observations of the exoplanet $\beta$ Pic b. I. Direct imaging in the far-red optical with MagAO+VisAO and in the near-IR with NICI
• Adaptive Optics imaging of VHS 1256-1257: A Low Mass Companion to a Brown Dwarf Binary System
• On the Morphology and Chemical Composition of the HR 4796A Debris Disk
• High Resolution Images of Orbital Motion in the Orion Trapezium Cluster with the LBT Adaptive Optics System
• The Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign: The Orbit of the Young Exoplanet beta Pictoris b
• Polarized Light Imaging of the HD 142527 Transition Disk with the Gemini Planet Imager: Dust around the Close-in Companion
• Direct Exoplanet Detection with Binary Differential Imaging
• New Extinction and Mass Estimates from Optical Photometry of the Very Low Mass Brown Dwarf Companion CT Chamaeleontis B with the Magellan AO System
• New Spatially Resolved Observations of the T Cha Transition Disk and Constraints on the Previously Claimed Substellar Companion
• MagAO Imaging of Long-period Objects (MILO). I. A Benchmark M Dwarf Companion Exciting a Massive Planet around the Sun-like Star HD 7449
• Multiwavelength Observations of NaSt1 (WR 122): Equatorial Mass Loss and X-rays from an Interacting Wolf-Rayet Binary
• Design, implementation, and on-sky performance of an advanced apochromatic triplet atmospheric dispersion corrector for the Magellan adaptive optics system and VisAO camera
• Magellan AO System $z^{\prime }$, $Y_S$, and $L^{\prime }$ Observations of the Very Wide 650 AU HD 106906 Planetary System
• High Resolution H alpha Images of the Binary Low-mass Proplyd LV 1 with the Magellan AO System
• The First Circumstellar Disk Imaged in Silhouette with Adaptive Optics: MagAO Imaging of Orion 218-354

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Magellan Adaptive Optics Imaging of PDS 70: Measuring the Mass Accretion Rate of a Young Giant Planet within a Gapped Disk
• Complex Spiral Structure in the HD 100546 Transitional Disk as Revealed by GPI and MagAO
• A search for accreting young companions embedded in circumstellar disks: High-contrast H$\alpha$ imaging with VLT/SPHERE
• The Giant Accreting Protoplanet Survey (GAPlanetS) -- Results from a Six Year Campaign to Image Accreting Protoplanets
• Measuring the variability of directly imaged exoplanets using vector Apodizing Phase Plates combined with ground-based differential spectrophotometry
• The Giant Accreting Protoplanet Survey (GAPlanetS): Optimization Techniques for Robust Detections of Protoplanets
• OGLE-2007-BLG-224L: Confirmation of Terrestrial Parallax
• Occurrence rates of accreting companions from a new method for computing emission-line survey sensitivity: application to the H-alpha Giant Accreting Protoplanet Survey