The Adaptive Optics Facility: Commissioning Progress and Results

All the Adaptive Optics Facility (AOF) subsystems are now in Paranal and the project team is working on commissioning activities on Unit Telescope 4 (UT4) of the Very Large Telescope. Excellent progress has been made; the new secondary mirror unit, the Deformable Secondary Mirror (DSM), was installed in October 2016 and UT4 is now operating routinely with the DSM in non-adaptive optics mode. The other modules of the AOF, the Ground Atmospheric Layer Adaptive optiCs for Spectroscopic Imaging (GALACSI), the 4 Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF) and the GRound-layer Adaptive optics Assisted by Lasers (GRAAL), have been installed and are being qualified. The coupling with the High Acuity Wide field K-band Imager (HAWK-I) and the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) has been tested and all elements are functional and ready to proceed with their full commissioning. The goal for the AOF is to complete GALACSI wide-field mode technical commissioning by the end of summer 2017 and the GRAAL ground-layer adaptive optics mode by the end of the year.
Published in The Messenger vol. 168, pp. 8-14, June 2017.