The Tip-Tilt Correction System in AO System for Small Telescope

We are developing Adaptive Optics (AO) system for 24 inch telescope at Seoul National University Observatory. It consists of the tip-tilt correction system and the residual wavefront error correction system with a deformable mirror and a wavefront sensor. We present the construction and performance measurements of the tip-tilt correction system. The tip-tilt component is the single largest contributor to wavefront error, especially for small telescope. The tip-tilt correction system consists of a quadrant photodiode, a tip-tilt mirror and a feed back loop. The collimated He-Ne laser beam is used for input light source and is artificially disturbed by air turbulence generated by a heat gun. Most of the turbulence is of low frequency less than 20 Hz, but extends to a few hundreds Hz. It is found that the closed loop system using proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control successfully corrects tip-tilt error at a rate as high as 300~400 Hz.