Development of adaptive optics system for SNUO 1m telescope

Adaptive Optics (AO) is the technology for ground-based telescopes to overcome the interference caused by atmospheric turbulence. We are developing an AO system for the 1-m telescope at Seoul National University Observatory (SNUO). The seeing size of the SNUO is 2 arcseconds on average, and 0.85 arcseconds at best condition. Our system is based on MEMS deformable mirror and Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor. We developed the wavefront sensor using a cheap CMOS camera, and measured phase disturbance at SNUO. To verify the performance of the AO system, we designed an artificial phase disturber that produces similar scale phase error, measured at SNUO. We carried out laboratory tests in which the AO system measures and corrects the wavefront using the phase disturber and an F/6 light source, the same as that of SNUO telescope. The control system was developed in C++. The system performs closed-loop PI correction up to 100 Hz at a consumer-grade PC.