Next level in laser guide star creation
To meet the ever-increasing demands for large telescopes, a so-called laser guide star can be used for adaptive optics correction.
These artificial reference stars are created by a Laser Projection System (LPS), which has a Beam Conditioning and Diagnostics System (BCDS) as one of its critical subsystems. Building on its works for the Very Large Telescope, TNO recently won the tender for the Extremely Large Telescope’s LPS. Demcon focal was challenged to design the BCDS, as described in this Mikroniek article. It combines easy maintainability with strict optical requirements concerning laser beam quality and pointing stability, taking into account large thermal and mechanical load variations. (Image courtesy of Demcon focal)
