CANARY: The NGS/LGS MOAO demonstrator for EAGLE

¹ Centre for Advanced Instrumentation, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK
² Observatoire de Paris, Place Jules Janssen, F-92 195 Meudon Cedex, France
³ UKATC, Royal Observatory Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
⁴ ONERA, BP72 - 29, Avenue de la Division Leclerc FR-92322 Chatillon Cedex, France
⁵ Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile, Av. Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins 340, Santiago, Chile
⁶ Engineering and Project Solutions Ltd., Daresbury Innovation Centre, Daresbury International Science & Technology Park, Keckwick Lane, Daresbury, Warrington, WA4 4FS, UK
⁷ School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, UK
⁸ Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, Edificio Mayantigo, Calle Alvarez Abreu 70, E-38700 Santa Cruz de la Palma, Canary Islands, Spain

^a e-mail: t.j.morris@durham.ac.uk

Abstract

EAGLE is a multi-object 3D spectroscopy instrument currently under design for the 42-metre European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). EAGLE will use open-loop Multi-Object Adaptive Optics (MOAO) to provide partial AO correction across a wide (5-10 arcmin) field of view. The novelty of this scheme is such that on-sky demonstration is required prior to final construction of an E-ELT instrument. The CANARY project will implement a single channel of an MOAO system on the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope. The CANARY project is undergoing a phased development plan that starts with demonstration of low-order open-loop AO correction using first NGS then Rayleigh LGS tomography, moving to a demonstration of high-order open-loop AO correction using LGS tomography. This final stage will also include 2 DMs in a woofer-tweeter configuration similar to that of EAGLE when installed at the E-ELT. We describe the requirements for the various phases of MOAO demonstration, the corresponding CANARY configurations and capabilities and the current designs of the various subsystems.