Performance of the CFHT Adaptive Optics Bonnette

Rigaut, F.; Salmon, D.; Arsenault, R.; Thomas, J.; Lai, O.; Rouan, D.; Veran, J. P.; Gigan, P.; Crampton, D.; Fletcher, J. M.; Stilburn, J.; Boyer, C.; Jagourel, P.

Performance of the CFHT Adaptive Optics Bonnette

Authors

Description

Extensive results from the commissioning phase of PUEO, the adaptive optics instrument adaptor for the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope, are presented and discussed. Analyses of more than 750 images recorded with a CCD and a near-IR camera on 16 nights in wavelengths from B to H are used to derive the properties of the compensated wavefront and images in a variety of conditions. The performance characteristics of the system are analyzed and presented in several ways, in terms of delivered Strehl ratios, full-width-half-maxima, and quantities describing the improvements of both. A qualitative description is given of how the properties of the corrected images result from the structure function of the compensated phase. Under median seeing conditions, PUEO delivers essentially diffraction-limited images at H and K, images with FWHM ~0.1" at J and I, and provides significant gains down to B, with guide stars as faint as R = 14. During good conditions, substantial gains were realized with guide stars as faint as R = 17. A simple user-interface and software which automatically and continuously optimizes the mode gains during observations makes the operational efficiency extremely high. A few astronomical examples are briefly discussed.
18 pages plus 12 postscript figures. Accepted by PASP. Also available at http://www.hia.nrc.ca/science/preprint/preprint.html