DU-GALL: Durham University - Generalised AO Laser Laboratory
Lead Research Organisation:
Durham University
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) will require significant adaptive optics (AO) technology development. The AO development roadmap identifies various forms of laser guide star (LGS) AO, in particular, to be both challenging technologically and critical for the proposed ELT instrument suite. The innovation and difficulty of several crucial LGS AO technologies is indeed such that on-sky verification will be required. Whilst some verification will be provided by the VLT multi-LGS AOF (Adaptive Optics Facility), several key technologies will require prototyping on other facilities. We propose the development of a new laser AO test laboratory, DU-GALL, which will be usable both in the laboratory and on-sky on the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope, and which will subsume our existing WHT laser AO test system, the Rayleigh Technical Demonstrator (RTD). DU-GALL's purpose will be to investigate laser guide star (LGS) adaptive optics technologies required for the E-ELT and future ESO and Gemini AO facility upgrades. We focus particularly on Laser Multi-Object AO and Laser Tomographic AO, but the proposed system will be inherently capable of testing other ELT AO roadmap technologies, and we propose this through collaborative links and FP7 funding. DU-GALL will provide key support for the UK in taking an important role in the next generation of LGS AO-optimised instrument design.
People |
ORCID iD |
Richard Myers (Principal Investigator) | |
Gordon Love (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Morris T
(2010)
CANARY: The NGS/LGS MOAO demonstrator for EAGLE
Morris T.
(2019)
Canary: An on-sky instrument development test bench open to the community
in AO4ELT 2019 - Proceedings 6th Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes
Vidal F
(2014)
Analysis of on-sky MOAO performance of CANARY using natural guide stars
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Description | Yes, the funding secured the UK leadership of the CANARY UK-France project, with myself as overall PI. CANARY has achieved the following world firsts, which are fully consistent with the goals of this funding: Laser Multi-Object AO (MOAO) demonstrated on-sky - this is a technology required for the MOS (Multi-Object Spectrograph) on the forthcoming European Extremely Large Telescope. The technology will allow, for example, a survey of the first galaxies to form in the universe, exploring the mechanisms which give the universe its particular form. It overcomes the effects of atmospheric turbulence on ground-based telescopes and does so over a very wide field of view. Artificial stars, produced by powerful lasers, are used to sense the atmospheric turbulence above the telescope and and to correct its effects. Laser Tomographic AO (LTAO) demonstrated on-sky - this is an atmospheric correction technology required by the UK-led HARMONI first-light instrument on the forthcoming European Extremely Large Telescope. Full Linear Quadratic Gaussian Conreol demonstrated on-sky - optimally removes the effects of windshake on telescope images. AO feed of a photonic lantern spectrograph demonstrated on-sky optimal feeding of a new photonic technology spectrograph using adaptive optics Artificial Neural Net tomographic reconstructor demonstrated on-sky, - technology allowing adaptive optics turbulence correction to adapt automatically to changes in the atmospheric configuration CuReD and HWR wavefront reconstructors demonstrated on-sky - new high-speed computational methods for adaptive optics for exoplanet imaging. MOAO and LTAO are required for the ELT-MOS, ELT-IFU (HARMONI), METIS, and possibly HIRES. This work has secured our position in the MOS and HIRES projects, including the position of AO Systems Engineer and Real-time control lead for the MOS. The success of CANARY has secured EU funding (OPTICON) and ESO support for CANARY Phase D (Na LGS Spot Elongation) WE note that MOAO technology is used in Keck's future NGAO system and LTAO is a workhorse mode of GMT. |
Exploitation Route | MOAO and LTAO are required for the ELT-MOS, ELT-IFU (HARMONI), METIS, and possibly HIRES. This work has secured our position in the MOS and HIRES projects, including the position of AO Systems Engineer and Real-time control lead for the MOS. The success of CANARY has secured EU funding (OPTICON) and ESO support for CANARY Phase D (Na LGS Spot Elongation) WE note that MOAO technology is used in Keck's future NGAO system and LTAO is a workhorse mode of GMT. |
Sectors | Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
URL | https://www.dur.ac.uk/cfai/projects/canary/ |
Description | Yes, the funding secured the UK leadership of the CANARY UK-France project, with myself as overall PI. CANARY has achieved the following world firsts, which are fully consistent with the goals of this funding: Laser Multi-Object AO (MOAO) demonstrated on-sky Laser Tomographic AO (LTAO) demonstrated on-sky Full Linear Quadratic Gaussian Conreol demonstrated on-sky AO feed of a photonic lantern spectrograph demonstrated on-sky Artificial Neural Net tomographic reconstructor demonstrated on-sky, CuReD and HWR wavefront reconstructors demonstrated on-sky MOAO and LTAO are required for the ELT-MOS, ELT-IFU (HARMONI), METIS, and possibly HIRES. This work has secured our position in the MOS and HIRES projects, including the position of AO Systems Engineer and Real-time control lead for the MOS. The success of CANARY has secured EU funding (OPTICON) and ESO support for CANARY Phase D (Na LGS Spot Elongation) I note that MOAO technology is used in Keck's future NGAO system and LTAO is a workhorse mode of GMT. |
First Year Of Impact | 2010 |
Description | EU FP7 OPTICON (2) WP1 |
Amount | £202,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 312430 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Department | Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 01/2013 |
End | 12/2016 |
Description | EU FP7 OPTICON JRA-1 |
Amount | £736,783 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 226604 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 01/2009 |
End | 12/2012 |
Description | European Space Agency TRP |
Amount | £283,554 (GBP) |
Funding ID | TEC-MMO/2014/127 |
Organisation | ESA - ESTEC |
Sector | Public |
Country | Netherlands |
Start | 03/2015 |
End | 05/2018 |
Description | CANARY |
Organisation | Heriot-Watt University |
Department | School of Engineering & Physical Sciences |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Overall leadership of the CANARY project. Approximately equal contribution with Obs de Paris to the design, build and test. Real-time controller. |
Collaborator Contribution | Design of Diffractive optical elements for Laser Guide Star constellation projection |
Impact | Proof that Natural Guide Star Multi-Object Adaptive Optics works on-sky |
Start Year | 2007 |
Description | CANARY |
Organisation | Observatory of Paris |
Department | Laboratory for Space Science and Astrophysical Instrumentation |
Country | France |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Overall leadership of the CANARY project. Approximately equal contribution with Obs de Paris to the design, build and test. Real-time controller. |
Collaborator Contribution | Design of Diffractive optical elements for Laser Guide Star constellation projection |
Impact | Proof that Natural Guide Star Multi-Object Adaptive Optics works on-sky |
Start Year | 2007 |
Description | CANARY |
Organisation | Pontifical Catholic University of Chile |
Department | Department of Industry and System Engineering |
Country | Chile |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Overall leadership of the CANARY project. Approximately equal contribution with Obs de Paris to the design, build and test. Real-time controller. |
Collaborator Contribution | Design of Diffractive optical elements for Laser Guide Star constellation projection |
Impact | Proof that Natural Guide Star Multi-Object Adaptive Optics works on-sky |
Start Year | 2007 |
Description | CANARY |
Organisation | UK Astronomy Technology Centre (ATC) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Overall leadership of the CANARY project. Approximately equal contribution with Obs de Paris to the design, build and test. Real-time controller. |
Collaborator Contribution | Design of Diffractive optical elements for Laser Guide Star constellation projection |
Impact | Proof that Natural Guide Star Multi-Object Adaptive Optics works on-sky |
Start Year | 2007 |
Description | CANARY |
Organisation | University of Oviedo |
Department | Gijón Polytechnic School of Engineering |
Country | Spain |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Overall leadership of the CANARY project. Approximately equal contribution with Obs de Paris to the design, build and test. Real-time controller. |
Collaborator Contribution | Design of Diffractive optical elements for Laser Guide Star constellation projection |
Impact | Proof that Natural Guide Star Multi-Object Adaptive Optics works on-sky |
Start Year | 2007 |
Description | E-ELT MOS |
Organisation | Observatory of Paris |
Country | France |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Adaptive Optics for the E-ELT MOS |
Collaborator Contribution | Full co-partners in the study with key roles divided |
Impact | Phase A Design study for EAGLE Adaptive Optics |
Start Year | 2010 |
Description | School visit, Malaysia |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Interested discussion Great interest amongst international students for taking UK astronomy and astrophysics courses |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |