CUCAO-Cam: The Claremont Undergraduate Colleges Adaptive Optics Camera
Abstract
CUCAO-Cam is the Claremont Undergraduate Colleges Adaptive Optics Camera being built for the College's existing 1-m optical telescope at Table Mountain Observatory (TMO). The instrument is being designed as an optical/near-IR natural guide star adaptive optics system that will implement a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor and a 12x12 element Boston Micromachines micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) deformable mirror for wavefront correction. All aspects of the design, fabrication, implementation and testing of the instrument are being undertaken with undergraduates from Pomona and Harvey Mudd Colleges and once built, the instrument will be dedicated to undergraduate research and teaching. In this poster, we first describe our initial site tests that include the implementation of both a differential image motion monitor (DIMM) to measure the effect of ground layer turbulence on our seeing conditions as well as a wide-field monitoring camera (Skyclops) to monitor transparency conditions. We next present the CUCAU-Cam's optical design and performance expectations as predicted from Zemax modeling. Finally we summarize the current status of the working, closed-loop laboratory testbed and future plans for the instrument.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #214
- Pub Date:
- May 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009AAS...21440917C