Laboratory calibration of the W.M. Keck Observatory Adaptive Optics Facility

The Keck AO system is nearing completion and is nearly ready for system integration in the optics laboratory at Keck Headquarters. because of the ambitious scientific objectives of this project, the AO system is quite complex in design. The optics bench alone has 33 motion control axes, and potentially 6 image planes. Calibration will play a major role in making the AO system function as planned. We have identified approximately 35 separate calibration procedures that will be needed to be performed during the integration phase in the laboratory. Many of these procedures are quite straightforward. Other calibrations are quite involved and are mini 'research projects' in themselves. It is this last category that will be discussed in this paper.