A portable solar adaptive optics system: Software and laboratory developments

Deqing Ren*, Matt Penn, Claude Plymate, Haimin Wang, Xi Zhang, Bing Dong, Nathan Brown, Andrew Denio

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present our recent process on a portable solar adaptive Optics system, which is aimed for diffraction-limited imaging in the 1.0 ∼ 5.0-μm infrared wavelength range with any solar telescope with an aperture size up to 1.6 meters. The realtime wave-front sensing, image processing and computation are based on a commercial multi-core personal computer. The software is developed in LabVIEW. Combining the power of multi-core imaging processing and LabVIEW parallel programming, we show that our solar adaptive optics can achieve excellent performance that is competitive with other systems. In addition, the LabVIEW'S block diagram based programming is especially suitable for rapid development of a prototype system, which makes a low-cost and high-performance system possible. Our adaptive optics system is flexible; it can work with any telescope with or without central obstruction with any aperture size in the range of 0.6∼1.6 meters. In addition, the whole system is compact and can be brought to a solar observatory to perform associated scientific observations. According to our knowledge, this is the first adaptive optics that adopts the LabVIEW high-level programming language with a multi-core commercial personal computer, and includes the unique features discussed above.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAdaptive Optics Systems II
EditionPART 1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010
Externally publishedYes
EventAdaptive Optics Systems II - San Diego, CA, United States
Duration: 27 Jun 20102 Jul 2010

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
NumberPART 1
Volume7736
ISSN (Print)0277-786X

Conference

ConferenceAdaptive Optics Systems II
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Diego, CA
Period27/06/102/07/10

Keywords

  • Adaptive optics
  • High resolution imaging
  • Solar instrumentation

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