The beauty of science and technology.

olympus mons · Mar 4, 2015

Hey LPF. I have been doing a lot of reading about the most current Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics System and wanted to share some of the awe and wonder. These pictures are moving. Also here is a link of a great read on the system.

ADAPTIVE OPTICS: High-power guidestar lasers are ready for next-generation AO astronomy - Laser Focus World

keck_telescopes_observe_the_center_of_our_galaxy_zpsfmeaajq6.jpg

Shakenawake · Mar 4, 2015

gozert · Mar 4, 2015

Shakenawake said:

It looks somewhere around 589nm to me, is there a reason they use this wavelength?

It would make more sense to use a 532nm laser, since I think that would be quite a bit cheaper. Not sure how it works on these really high powered ones though.

olympus mons · Mar 4, 2015

gozert said:
It looks somewhere around 589nm to me, is there a reason they use this wavelength?

It would make more sense to use a 532nm laser, since I think that would be quite a bit cheaper. Not sure how it works on these really high powered ones though.

Yes, they need to reach 90 kilometers into the mesosphere to excite the sodium atoms left by meteorites burning up in the atmosphere.
They do use green 532nm at some observatories but they only reach 10 kilometers so are better suited for IR and X-ray type telescopes.
Also they aren't your run of the mill dpss laser. The 589.2590000 especially. Its different type of laser system as they need to be incredibly stable and accurate in wl to 6-8 points past the decimal and fully adjustable in real time in power and wl. They are incredible feets of engineering I would encourage you to read the link if interested.

gozert · Mar 4, 2015

nwfreefly said:
Yes, they need to reach 90 kilometers into the mesosphere to excite the sodium atoms left by meteorites burning up in the atmosphere.
They do use green 532nm at some observatories but they only reach 10 kilometers so are better suited for IR and X-ray type telescopes.
Also they aren't your run of the mill dpss laser. The 589.2590000 especially. Its different type of laser system as they need to be incredibly stable and accurate in wl to 6-8 points past the decimal and fully adjustable in real time in power and wl. They are incredible feets of engineering I would encourage you to read the link if interested.

Will do, thanks for explaining. Rep earned!

Mattronium · Mar 4, 2015

Absolutely beautiful indeed

.
From the article it seems to say the wavelength of the sodium D2a line is 589.15905nm ±0.00005nm. So I doubt the laser would need to be more precise than that.

I personally like this picture especially, because it includes lasers and high voltage.

olympus mons · Mar 5, 2015

Mattronium said:
Absolutely beautiful indeed.
From the article it seems to say the wavelength of the sodium D2a line is 589.15905nm ±0.00005nm. So I doubt the laser would need to be more precise than that.

I personally like this picture especially, because it includes lasers and high voltage.

Yeah thats pretty precise, lol! Hard to fathom. That pic is amazing. Looks like a farmer amateur astronomy set up.

trencheel303 · Mar 8, 2015

It's pretty isn't it. Tens of watts of 589, what more could you want :wave:

NightExplorer96 · Mar 8, 2015

Beautiful Indeed

Thanks for sharing.

-Alex

The beauty of science and technology.

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