First announcement
After the success of the first edition of the Adaptive Optics for the Extremely Large Telescope (AO4ELT) conference held in Paris in 2009, the second edition of this conference will take place on the North American continent, in Victoria, BC, Canada, from September 25 to September 30 (2011). The conference is organized by the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics of the National Research Council of Canada, the Department of Engineering of the University of Victoria, the LESIA department of the Paris Observatory and the Optics department of ONERA (the last two in the framework of the PHASE partnership).
The last two years have been a period of intensive work for the ELT projects and their instrumentation. In the field of AO, extensive studies have led to a better understanding of the performances, the costs but also the risks of the different AO-assisted instruments, and consequently to an instrumentation plan for the different ELT projects.
The AO4ELT2 conference will be an opportunity to review the current status of these AO studies and to explore all aspects of AO R&D for ELTs, from high-level science requirements to low-level AO components. We will specially emphasize pathfinder projects that validate new technologies and/or methods that are critical to enabling AO on ELTs. These include dedicated lab and field experiments, as well as advanced AO instruments on the current generation of telescopes, including solar telescopes.
Important deadlines
Mar 1, 2011: Website opened to registration and abstract submission
Apr 30, 2011: Abstract due date
Jul 1, 2011: Final conference program announcement
Aug 1, 2011: End of early registration
Sep 25-30, 2011: AO4ELT 2011 conference
