MAORY stands for Multi-conjugate Adaptive Optics RelaY (the name has been recently changed to MORFEO, which stands for Multiconjugate adaptive Optics For ELT Observations, thus in this article we will use MORFEO), and it is one of the instruments of the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). The main function of MORFEO is to relay the light beam from the ELT focal plane to the client instrument (initially MICADO) while compensating, through a multiconjugate adaptive optics system, the effects of the atmospheric turbulence and other disturbances affecting the wavefronts coming from the scientific sources of interest.
The MORFEO instrument is designed and developed by a European consortium composed of INAF (Istituto Nazionale di AstroFisica, Italy), CNRS/INSU (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/ Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers, France), NUIG (National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland) and ESO (European Southern Observatory, Europe).
The opto-mechanical design of MORFEO has been developed in 3 dimensions, using the volume between the ELT output focal plane and the Nasmyth floor. The design uses the available volume in a very efficient way, but this poses constraints on the orientation of the optical elements and adds complexity to the AIT operations. In this paper we describe the strategy of the AIT process which will be performed at INAF-OAS Bologna (Italy), which is conceived to maximize knowledge of the instrument and thereby optimize (and, possibly, minimize) the time requested at Armazones for the AIV operations.MORFEO/MAORY is the post-focal adaptive optics instrument of the ELT. It is designed to provide the 53×53 arcsec field of view of MICADO with MCAO correction based on split-tomography, where the Low-Order modes are sensed by three NGS-based WFS. To maximize the sky-coverage the LO-WFS are 2×2 subapertures Shack- Hartmann sensors working in the H band, making use of the FREDA detectors. MAORY also implements 3 dedicated NGS-based truth sensors to measure at slow rate the true higher order atmospheric aberrations and to de-trend the LGS WFS measurements. These WFS work with the visible light of the NGS to feed a 10 × 10 SH sensor that makes use of the ALICE detector. Each unit of LOR WFS is provided with a couple of orthogonal linear stages to allow for the NGS acquisition in a 80 arcsec radius. The 3 LOR WFS are arranged at 120° geometry on a common support structure that rigidly connects them to MICADO and its rotator.
In this paper we present the status of the LOR WFS Module at the output of the MORFEO preliminary design review. We focus on the optomechanical arrangement of the subsystem highlighting the design choices and the analyses we carried out to verify its compliance to the requirements.In this paper, we report on the first on-sky results and analyze the performances based on the data collected so far. We also discuss adaptive optics procedures and the joint operations with Luci for science observations.
We present in the following the MICADO-MAORY SCAO specifications, the current SCAO prototyping activities at LESIA for E-ELT scale pyramid wavefront sensor (WFS) and real-time computer (RTC), our activities on end-to-end AO simulations and the current preliminary design of SCAO subsystems. We finish by presenting the implementation and current design studies for the high-contrast imaging mode of MICADO, which will make use of the SCAO correction offered to the instrument.
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