K. K. R. Santhakumari is a post-doctoral fellow at the INAF-Astronomical Observatory of Padova, Italy. In 2017, Kalyan obtained a Ph.D. degree in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany working on the adaptive optics system of the LINC-NIRVANA instrument at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg. He has experience working on the AO calibration strategies, commissioning AO systems, and presently, contributing to the various adaptive optics projects (LINC-NIRVANA, INGOT, MAVIS, SHARK- NIR).
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We hope to transform an instrument like the first-focus one of the LBT into the spearhead facility to identify the multiple populations in galactic globular clusters from the ground.
A new set of simulations has been developed to identify the best thin-layer filter to be used in order to separate populations with different light element abundances. We also built an optomechanical set-up to test the filter behavior in a LBC-like configuration. We present here the simulation strategy and some transmission curve obtained with the laboratory set-up.
Multiconjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) promises uniform wide-field atmospheric correction. However, partial illumination of the layers at which the deformable mirrors are conjugated results in incomplete information about the full turbulence field. We report on a working solution to this difficulty for layer-oriented MCAO, including laboratory and on-sky demonstration with the LINC-NIRVANA instrument at the Large Binocular Telescope. This approach has proven to be simple and stable.
At the ground layer, the footprints of the stars overlap completely and every star footprint illuminates the entire pupil-plane. However, for a higher layer, the footprints do not overlap completely and each star illuminates a different region of the conjugated plane. Lack of stars, therefore, results in some regions in this "meta-pupil"-plane not being illuminated, implying no information regarding the aberrations in these areas. The optimum way of correcting the high layer, given this limited information, is the crux of the "partial illumination issue". In this paper, we propose a solution for this issue and discuss laboratory results from the aligned LN bench in the lab. Currently, LN has completed the re-integration and re-alignment at LBT. In early June 2016, we tested our partial illumination algorithm in the instrument’s final configuration in the LBT mountain lab, using simulated stars. On sky testing will begin in late 2016.
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