Home of MagAO and MagAO-X.
On Friday we performed a focus test of the VisAO camera for the first time. We are so far very happy with the results, as it looks like the focus position of our CCD stage is right about where it should be. This experiment was the first time we had the optics, the mechanical components, and the software all working together. A big day!
Here is a demo of our filter wheel assembly (designed by Kevin Brutlag and assembled by Jason Lewis) spinning under the control of the AO Supervisor software.
Here’s a short video of our “smart” shutter in action. In this test it is responding to a simulated Strehl ratio time series, showing that it is fast and accurate enough to perform real-time frame selection – essentially lucky imaging without the luck.
This plot shows that the shutter was open when Strehl was high (red line up), and shut when Strehl was low (red line down). The 5ms delay is due to the mechanical delay of the shutter – it doesn’t move instantaneously. We are actively developing predictive algorithms to reduce this error.
