ORCAS Keck instrument demonstrator

Thursday 15 May 2025, 13:50 → 14:10 Europe/Rome

0/0-3 - Sala Rosino (Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia - Edificio ex-Rizzato)

Speakers: Paolo Cerpelloni  (Università degli Studi di Padova)

The Orbiting Configurable Artificial Star (ORCAS) mission in collaboration with the W. M. Keck Observatory has designed, assembled, built, and delivered, within 180 days, ORCAS Keck Instrument Demonstrator (ORKID) (ORCAS Keck Instrument Demonstrator), an early visible-wavelength performance demonstration with the Keck II Adaptive Optics (AO) system. The optical performance of ORKID meets the technical requirements derived from the scientific goals of having a Nyquist- sampled point spread function at 650 nm. This is achieved by diffraction-limited as-built performance with a root mean square internal wavefront error below 50 nm, which is key for the advancement of the ORCAS mission. ORKID has acquired, with a closed AO loop, no frame selection, while shifting and adding, the sharpest-ever on-sky image captured at Keck II. With a full width at half maximum of ∼15 mas, this is the equivalent of a 9-m diffraction-limited telescope. By doing so, the immense potential and viability of the proposed Hybrid Observatory ORCAS mission are demonstrated.

 

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