| Name: | T. S. Kumar |
| Affiliation: | ARIES |
| Conference ID : | ASI2024_931 |
| Title : | Mirror control techniques in the 3.6 m DOT and future plans |
| Authors : | T. S. Kumar and B. Krishna Reddy |
| Authors Affiliation: | ARIES, Nainital
|
| Mode of Presentation: | Oral |
| Abstract Category : | Facilities, Technologies and Data science |
| Abstract : | In this presentation we first describe the existing active optics mirror control system in the 3.6 m Devasthal Optical Telescope and highlight its capabilities in achieving sub-arcsecond image quality. Here the shape of the primary mirror is maintained by applying forces on its back surface and optical alignment of the telescope is maintained by moving the secondary mirror. The systems is being upgraded against obsolescence for which a new sCMOS based Shack Hartmann wavefront sensor is developed. Also, the secondary mirror control PC and hexapod actuator are being upgraded. An active optics system can provide image quality which is limited by site seeing conditions. Any further improvement in image quality requires adaptive optics system which essentially corrects the aberrations introduced in the atmosphere. To develop adaptive optics for a telescope it is essential to understand the atmospheric turbulence profile at the telescope site. Thus, we later discuss the initiatives towards development of a site profiler and adaptive optics for the 3.6 m DOT. Currently, a SCIDAR setup is being developed for measuring the turbulence parameters to a height of 10 km which can be easily modified into a SLODAR setup for profiling the ground layer turbulence. A prototype adaptive optics system is also being developed in the laboratory. Both profiler and adaptive optics system would be first tested and demonstrated on the 1.3 m DFOT telescope. |
