Hi David,

David Nakamoto wrote:

Perhaps we can get someone from Lowell Observatory or Stewart observatories,
the former in Flagstaff and the latter in Tucson, to answer this, although I
wonder how definitive the answer would be. It seems to me that this is
another area of human knowledge where DEFINING what you mean by adaptive and
active would clarify what the situation is immensely.

Well, I've talked to people at a few observatories about this
definition, including Mount Wilson and Keck. One optical engineer I
know at Mount Wilson who is familiar with the natural guide star systems
used there (and worked on spy satellites which I understand use AO) says
the AO-7 *isn't* "adaptive optics". A physicist/astronomer at Mount
Wilson who's been in the field from the beginning of its appearance in
astronomy, and who's currently building the laser guide star system on
the 100-inch says it *is* "adaptive optics", though (albeit without a
great deal of conviction). IIRC, the Keck AO engineer (who built the
earliest AO system in astronomy outside of DoD) thought it isn't but was
kind of equivocal.

But Don is actually in the industry that creates the parts and systems
the rest use rather than being an end user of a system or two, which is
why I was interested in his perspective. Don's been around this stuff a
very long time -- I think much longer than any astronomers that didn't
work for DoD in the earliest years. If there IS a definitive answer Don
would probably know what it is. If not, it's still another view that's
usually missing in astronomy circles (or is that ellipses?).

Mike Simmons