| Adaptive optics increases the angular resolution of large, ground-based telescopes by compensating for the effects of atmospheric turbulence. CHRISP is a prototype adaptive optics system based on curvature sensing I have designed and built for the DAO 1.2 meter telescope. To simplify the optical design, the CHRISP wavefront sensor detects curvature deviations in a single defocused image. The prototype wavefront sensor uses a low noise frame transfer 64 ;Ultimately, I expect to use CHRISP to study faint companions to nearby stars, using the primary as a natural guide star. The details of many binary systems are hidden, since the secondary spectrum is hard to detect against the glare from the primary star. Improving the image sharpness and diverting the primary light should greatly enhance the contrast of the faint companion.;The CHRISP prototype is a testbed for the single image curvature sensing technique, and for the prototype wafefront sensor and membrane mirror. |
