Seminar @Obs by Laurent Mugnier (ONERA)

Abstract

The theoretical angular resolution of an optical imaging instrument, such as a telescope, is given by the ratio of the observed wavelength to the telescope aperture. In the case of ground-based observations, the angular resolution is limited by atmospheric turbulence: images are blurred compared to the instrument’s diffraction limit. Adaptive optics (AO) systems are designed to correct for this turbulence in real time. In this seminar, I will present a laboratory experiment to test the performance of new adaptive optics concepts for astronomy, as well as some of the results obtained under observatory conditions.