IACATS is an atmospheric turbulence, stars and telescope simulator for the evaluation of on ground telescopes instrumentation developed by INTA (optics) and LIDAX (opto-mechanics) for the IAC (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias). Three telescopes have been simulated, matching the f number, focal plane, and optical interface of the actual telescopes. An optical breadboard was designed and built containing the required opto-mechanics for simulating the telescopes, and various levels of turbulence required. In addition to the telescope simulator optics, a set of three phase plates have been procured and conveniently combined in order to reproduce the atmospheric turbulence required by the IAC. A wave front sensor has been also included in order to evaluate the deformation that the phase plates, or the simulated turbulence, produce in the wave front coming from the illumination system and star simulator. Finally, a specific illumination system was developed including different working wavelengths in order to fulfil the requirements. The description of the illumination system itself has been done in a separate publication.. In the following lines, the characteristics of the IACATS instrument as well as the results obtained from the AIV (Assembly and Integration Verification) process are reported on.

Date Published: 28 July 2010
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 7736, Adaptive Optics Systems II, 77363T (28 July 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.857987

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7736:
Adaptive Optics Systems II
Brent L. Ellerbroek; Michael Hart; Norbert Hubin; Peter L. Wizinowich, Editor(s)