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Large Binocular Telescope 2010
Large Binocular Telescope 2010
J. M. Hill, R. F. Green, D. S. Ashby, J. G. Brynnel, N. J. Cushing, J. K. Little, J. H. Slagle, and R. M. Wagner Large Binocular Telescope Observatory, University of Arizona 933 N Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
ABSTRACT
The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) Observatory is a collaboration between institutions in Arizona, Germany, Italy, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Virginia. The telescope on Mt. Graham in Arizona uses two 8.4-meter diameter primary mirrors mounted side-by-side to produce a collecting area equivalent to an 11.8-meter circular aperture. A unique feature of LBT is that the light from the two primary mirrors can be combined to produce phased-array imaging of an extended eld. This cophased imaging along with adaptive optics gives the telescope the diraction-limited resolution of a 22.65-meter telescope. Binocular imaging with two co-pointed prime focus cameras began in Fall 2007, and science observing continues routinely. We will describe the scientic results and technical challenges of monocular Gregorian focus observations starting in Spring 2008. Commissioning of the rst Gregorian spectrometer (LUCIFER1) has been completed with a rigid secondary mirror, and science observations have begun in December 2009. The telescope uses two F/15 adaptive secondaries to correct atmospheric turbulence. The rst of these adaptive mirrors has been tested in Italy with the adaptive loop closed, and arrived at the telescope in February 2010. The rst adaptive optics images were achieved on-sky in May 2010. The Direct Gregorian focus has been prepared for the arrival of the second Gregorian spectrometer (MODS1). Keywords: binocular telescope, honeycomb mirror, adaptive optics, phased array imaging
1. INTRODUCTION
The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) uses two 8.4-m diameter honeycomb primary mirrors mounted side-by-side on the same mount to produce a collecting area (110m2 ) equivalent to an 11.8-m circular aperture. The two Gregorian telescope sides point at the same object, or groups of objects close together on the sky. A unique feature of LBT is that the light from the two primary mirrors can be combined optically in the center of the telescope to produce phased-array imaging of an extended eld. In practice this extended phased eld can be of order 1-arcminute in diameter. Active and adaptive optics have been designed into the telescope from the beginning to augment the telescope performance from visible to mid-infrared wavelengths. The main wavefront correctors are the two F/15 Gregorian adaptive secondary mirrors. The interferometric focus combining the light from the two 8.4-m primaries will reimage the two folded Gregorian focal planes in a central location. Several of the instruments will implement an additional wavefront corrector at a higher conjugate after the initial Gregorian focus. This cophased imaging gives the telescope the diraction-limited resolution of a 22.65-m telescope in one spatial direction. We will be able to produce images with a resolution of 5 milliarcsec in visible light and 20 milliarcsec in the near-infrared. The binocular conguration of the telescope optics allows us to build a compact and sti mechanical structure. The short focal ratio primary mirrors help minimize the size of the co-rotating enclosure. Figure 1 shows the telescope enclosure open in twilight for observing. The telescope is located at Mount Graham International Observatory in the Pinale no Mountains of Southeastern Arizona at an elevation of 3192-m. Development of the project through First Light has been previously described by Hill, et al. (2008)1 and by Hill (2010)2 and references therein. The two paraboloidal primary mirrors can also be used independently (without optical combination) to obtain seeing-limited images over a wide eld-of-view. The LBT oers instruments mounted at a variety of focal stations
Further author information: Send correspondence to J.M.H.: E-mail: jhill@as.arizona.edu, Telephone: +1 520 621 3940
Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III, edited by Larry M. Stepp, Roberto Gilmozzi, Helen J. Hall Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7733, 77330C 2010 SPIE CCC code: 0277-786X/10/$18 doi: 10.1117/12.856479
which are described in more detail below. Interchange between the various optical congurations during the night is accomplished with swing arms which hold the secondary and tertiary mirrors and the prime focus correctors. Monocular prime focus science imaging started in Fall 2006, with regularly scheduled science observations using both primary mirrors in parallel starting in January 2007. Commissioning of the Gregorian focal stations began in April 2008 and continues. The rst science observations at the bent Gregorian focus began in December 2009. Commissioning of the adaptive optics system on-sky began in May 2010. The rst cophased binocular observations are planned for 2012. Further discussion of the transition from telescope completion to operations is provided by Green et al. (2010).3 A summary of the LBT instrumentation is provided by Wagner (2010).4
Figure 1. Photo of the Large Binocular Telescope with two 8.4-meter diameter primary mirrors open and ready for observing at sunset with the two prime focus cameras (deployed) and two Gregorian secondary mirrors (retracted). The telescope enclosure with two 10-meter wide shutter openings co-rotates with the azimuth axis of the telescope at speeds up to 1.5 degrees per second. The forest around the telescope is composed of spruce, r and aspen trees.
Figure 2. Photo of the LUCIFER1 instrument mounted on the Left Front Bent Gregorian focal station of LBT. The cable chain for the instrument rotator can be seen surrounding the instrument. The structure in the left foreground is used to support the auxiliary cryostats when exchanging the cryogenic multislit masks. Instrument rails for mounting the interferometric instruments in the central area of the telescope can be seen to the upper left.
Figure 3. This image is a J-H-K false-color composite image of the gravitationally-lensed galaxy J0900+2234. The prominent galaxies at the center of the frame are members of the foreground lensing cluster, while the lensed images of the redshift 2 target galaxy are fairly faint (small arcs). The data for this image was taken with LUCIFER1 on the left side of LBT. Image courtesy of F. Bian, University of Arizona.
telescope schedule permits. The Direct Gregorian focal stations will host the MODS optical spectrographs as well as the polarimeter heads for the PEPSI bench-mounted spectrograph.
Figure 4. This photo shows the structural shell of the MOD1 spectrograph arriving at the LBT on Mt. Graham on 17May-2010. MODS is a pair of double spectrographs operating in the optical and near-ultraviolet. In the photo, MODS1 is being unloaded along with its handling cart. The large (3-m diameter) end of MODS to the right mounts to the Direct Gregorian focal station, while the smaller end of MODS to the left contains the o-axis collimator. Photo courtesy of M. Midki (LBTO).
the time to complete this commissioning has been heavily impacted by bad weather. Typical focal station commissioning observations start with initial checkout of the hardware and software functions. That checkout becomes faster with each focal station as we gain experience with the hardware and software. This is followed by a detailed calibration and alignment of the AGw unit for o-axis guiding and wavefront sensing. Storm et al. (2010)12 provide a detailed discussion of the AGw commissioning activities. Next, we make a detailed optical alignment to remove binodal astigmatism, and populate the look-up tables for the open-loop collimation of the individual optical elements. This alignment process is becoming more ecient as we adopt the use of a laser-tracker to provide the initial positions of the optics. Finally, we carry out a set of on-sky performance verication observations to assure that all aspects of the focal station are performing properly. Guiding residuals are dominated by the atmospheric image motion when sampling with 2-second exposures. We measure 100 milliarcsec rms guiding residuals in median seeing conditions. Osets of the telescope while guiding have a precision of 50 milliarcsec rms which is limited by the transformation from sky coordinates to AGw guide probe coordinates.
Figure 5. Photo of the rst LBT adaptive secondary mounted (center) on the right side of the telescope. The 10-m wide shutter openings are open to the twilight sky above. From this view it looks like any other Gregorian secondary and the 672 magnets and voice coils which actuate the thin shell are not apparent. The cylinder to the lower right is the LBC-Red prime focus corrector which is retracted out of the beam on its swing arm. About 20 minutes are required to change the telescope optical conguration by exchanging swing arm positions.
Figure 6. This image from the infrared test camera was taken during early test observations with the adaptive secondary on LBT on 27-May-2010. The adaptive optics loop has been closed on-sky with 400-mode correction and a 1000 Hz frame rate. This H-band exposure (center panel) has a Strehl ratio of 63%, and a FWHM in the core of 40 milliarcsec. The two close components of triple star HD124085 are separated by 0.16 arcsec. The right panel shows the same image displayed with a logarithmic stretch. The left panel shows an image without adaptive correction (not coeval). These data were taken in seeing conditions varying from 0.5 to 0.75 arcsec FWHM (r). Image courtesy of the Adaptive Optics team at Osservatorio Astrosico di Arcetri. Graphics courtesy of F. Manucci, Osservatorio Astrosico di Arcetri.
The aspheric glass-ceramic shells of the adaptive secondaries are manufactured by the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab, while the mechanics are manufactured by ADS International in Lecco, Italy, and the electronics are manufactured by Microgate in Bolzano, Italy. The second unit is now ready to move to Arcetri Observatory to begin its turn for closed-loop system testing. This system is capable of providing a Strehl ratio of 80% at a wavelength of 1.6 microns.
7. OBSERVATORY PARTNERS
The international partners in the Large Binocular Telescope Corporation include Arizona (25%), Germany (25%), Italy (25%), Ohio State (12.5%) and Research Corporation (12.5%). The Arizona portion of the project includes astronomers from the University of Arizona, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University. The German portion is represented by the LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft which is composed of Max-Planck-Institut f ur Astronomie in Heidelberg, Zentrum f ur Astronomie der Universit at Heidelberg, Max-Planck-Institut f ur Radioastronomie in Bonn, Max-Planck-Institut f ur Extraterrestrische Physik in Munich and Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam. National participation in Italy is organized by the Istituto Nazionale di Astrosica (INAF). Partners at individual institutions include the Ohio State University in Columbus, Research Corporation in Tucson, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Minnesota and the University of Virginia. Astronomers and engineers at all of these institutions are involved in building instruments and auxiliary equipment for the telescope.
8. SUMMARY
While the construction of the LBT has been completed several years ago, the stream of new instruments and focal stations to be commissioned on-sky is becoming a ood. The nighttime schedule of the telescope is divided evenly between science observations and commissioning new focal stations and instruments. Science observations at prime focus continue with the LBC wide-eld imaging cameras. The rst science observations at the Left Bent Gregorian Focus began in December 2009 with the LUCIFER near-infrared imager and spectrometer. The rst MODS optical/near-ultraviolet imager and spectrometer arrived on Mt. Graham in May 2010. The rst of two adaptive secondary mirrors was installed on the right side of the telescope in March 2010. Recent photos and other news can be found on the LBTO web site: http://lbto.org
REFERENCES
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