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Old 06-08-2014, 07:26 AM
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Shiraz (Ray)
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Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: ardrossan south australia
Posts: 4,918
Quote:
Originally Posted by RickS View Post
Ray,

I did some experiments and got a reasonable FWHM improvement on a GSO RC10 at f/8 and an image scale of around 0.56 arcsec/pixel. IIRC, it was windy the night I was testing.

Martin Pugh is also getting some fantastic results from AO but that's on a big scope (17", I think?) at SRO with very good seeing.

Not surprisingly, it seems that AO is most beneficial when you're pushing the limits of your mount.

Cheers,
Rick.
Thanks Rick.

Seems to be a consistent pattern emerging - if the mount error is dominant (eg either the mount is lower quality, the seeing is exceptional or it is windy) then AO can be beneficial. If seeing is dominant, AO can make matters worse.

My test was designed so that seeing dominated and the limitations of off axis guiding, with uncorrelated noise in the guide channel, were evident. It showed quite clearly that AO as implemented can actually exacerbate seeing errors. Next stage will be to show what it can do to fix mount problems.

I wonder if we ever get good enough seeing in Aus for AO to be worthwhile on a good quality mount in still conditions?

regards Ray

Last edited by Shiraz; 06-08-2014 at 07:50 AM.
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