Authors

S. Rabien, L. Barl, U. Beckmann, T. Blümchen, M. Bonaglia, J. L. Borelli, J. Brynnel, L. Busoni, L. Carbonaro, C. Conot, R. Davies, M. Deysenroth, O. Durney, M. Elberich, S. Esposito, V. Gasho, W. Gässler, H. Gemperlein, R. Genzel, R. Green, M. Haug, M. Lloyd Hart, P. Hubbard, S. Kanneganti, M. Kulas, J. Noenickx, G. Orban de Xivry, D. Peter, A. Quirrenbach, M. Rademacher, H. W. Rix, P. Salinari, C. Schwab, J. Storm, L. Strüder, M. Thiel, G. Weigelt, J. Ziegleder

Affiliations

Max Planck Institute für extraterrestrische Physik

Abstract

We will present the design and status of ARGOS - the Laser Guide Star adaptive optics facility for the Large Binocular Telescope. By projecting a constellation of multiple laser guide stars above each of the 8.4m primary mirrors of the LBT, ARGOS in its ground layer mode will enable a wide field adaptive optics correction for multi object spectroscopy. ARGOS implements high power pulsed green lasers and makes use of Rayleigh scattering for the guide star creation. The geometric relations of this setup in guide star height vs. primary diameter are quite comparable to an ELT with sodium guide stars. The use of LBT’s adaptive secondary mirror, gated wavefront sensors, a prime focus calibration system and the laser constellation shows several aspects that may be used as pathfinding technology for the planned ELTs. In already planned upgrade steps with a hybrid Sodium-Rayleigh combination ARGOS will enable MCAO and MOAO implementations at LBT allowing unique astronomical observations.