SAMplus: adaptive optics at optical wavelengths for SOAR

Abstract

Adaptive Optics (AO) is an innovative technique that substantially improves the optical performance of ground-based telescopes. The SOAR Adaptive Module (SAM) is a laser-assisted AO instrument, designed to compensate ground-layer atmospheric turbulence in near-IR and visible wavelengths over a large Field of View. Here we detail our proposal to upgrade SAM, dubbed SAMplus, that is focused on enhancing its performance in visible wavelengths and increasing the instrument reliability. As an illustration, for a seeing of 0.62 arcsec at 500 nm and a typical turbulence profile, current SAM improves the PSF FWHM to 0.40 arcsec, and with the upgrade we expect to deliver images with a FWHM of $\approx 0.34$ arcsec -- up to 0.23 arcsec FWHM PSF under good seeing conditions. Such capabilities will be fully integrated with the latest SAM instruments, putting SOAR in an unique position as observatory facility.

arXiv commentTo appear in Proc. SPIE 10703 (Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII; SPIEastro18)

References in corpus (8)

• SOAR Adaptive Module (SAM): seeing improvement with a UV laser
• The Magellanic Bridge cluster NGC 796: Deep optical AO imaging reveals the stellar content and initial mass function of a massive open cluster
• First large scale Herbig-Haro jet driven by a proto-brown dwarf
• SOAR Adaptive Optics Observations of the Globular Cluster NGC6496
• An AO-assisted variability study of four globular clusters
• First results from SAM-FP: Fabry-Perot observations with ground-layer adaptive optics - the structure and kinematics of the core of 30 Doradus
• Imaging survey of subsystems in secondary components to nearby southern dwarfs
• BTFI2: a simple, light and compact Fabry-Perot instrument for the SOAR telescope

Cited by in corpus (1)

• BTFI2: a simple, light and compact Fabry-Perot instrument for the SOAR telescope