On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 14:35:29 +0100, "Gleb" wrote:

I consider designing a low-cost AO system for a small telescope. It
seems we have all necessary resources: we produce deformable mirrors and
wavefront sensors, we also produce closed-loop AO systems with up to 59
channels, so integration wouldn't be too complicated as all structural parts
are available

On the other hand we have little experience with astronomy and therefore any
advice would help.

The preliminary tech requirements:

1. To be mounted in 1.25 inch ocular socket (2" socket??). To be used with
telescopes with diameter in the range 25cm to 1m...

Gleb-

At an aperture of a meter, you can just begin to achieve true adaptive
optics- and at that point, only with a few channels. Otherwise, there
simply isn't enough light available for feedback to achieve the
necessary correction rates. for a 25cm scope, you will at best manage a
simple first order correction.

You may find a market among professional astronomers with meter class
scopes and research interests that focus on individual stellar objects.
However, the vast majority of amateurs are either aesthetic imagers or
are engaged in astrometry or photometry projects. None of these is
likely to benefit from AO.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com