Stochastic automatic control system for dynamic compensation of optical atmospheric distortion

Brief Description

Atmospheric layers act, due to turbulence, as a distorting optical system that causes parallel light rays to diverge. This severely limits the resolving power of ground-based astronomical telescopes in such a way that the resolving power of a 10 m telescope is not better than that of a 30 cm telescope. This limitation has made it impossible to image the disks of nearby stars, close binary systems, and the detailed structure of the cores of galaxies. Correction of atmospheric distortion is today technologically possible through the use of Adaptive Optic (AO) systems.

The project aims at the development and testing in real-life of a new AO method based on optimization algorithms, whereby the expensive wave-front sensors are replaced by a simple and cost-effective system for measuring the light intensity that passes through a mask and is recorded on the image plane. Moreover, the proposed method outperforms existing ones in terms of cost and technological simplicity.

The proposed method will be implemented and tested in a real ground-based astronomical telescope (Skinakas, Greece) that is equipped with all the necessary infrastructure for the implementation of the algorithm.