Adaptive optics again

[telecasterguru]

I know that this has been talked about before but should I think about AO for my 10" GSORC?

With a focal length of around 2m it should be a candidate but am a little confused about how they work.

Also, I think they are expensive so worried about the cost to benefit ratio.
Would I need a specialised camera as well as the AO unit? Anything else?

Any thoughts?

Frank

[Tandum]

Frank, Real AO systems use a flexible mirror to correct the image and a laser to measure the atmospheric variations. Consumer AO systems like the starlight job use a tilt tip optic window and rely on guide camera feedback for input. So it would work best with a very sensitive guide camera like a loadstar so you can get really short guide exposures to feed back into the system.

Not sure what benifit you would see in your situation.
robin.

[cfranks]

Robin, I suspect he is talking about something like http://www.starlight-xpress.co.uk/OAG.htm

Frank, I have one of those and am just in the process of getting it set up. They use a plane-parallel chunk of glass, 12mm thick that the 'twist' with 4 servo motors under control of a guide camera. The light passing through it to the camera is thus slightly deviated. A much quicker response to guiding commands than trying to move the whole mount as I normally do.

Charles

[multiweb]

I have the SXV-AO-LF (http://www.starlight-xpress.co.uk/SXV-AO.htm) . Was a bit fiddly to make it work (first generation) but from the few tests I did on my C11 at prime focus there was a huge difference. So yes, a definite candidate for moderate to long FL work. Not cheap but worth it IMHO.