Cute-SCIDAR

First light: February 2004.

Last commissioning:

Designed and built by: Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC).

Description: The proper knowledge of the atmospheric turbulence structure is crucial for optimising the efficiency of adaptive optics systems. SCIDAR has proved to be the most contrasted and efficient technique from ground level to obtain the optical vertical structure of the atmospheric turbulence. The classical and generalised SCIDAR techniques analyse the scintillation patterns produced at the telescope pupil by the light coming from the two stars of a binary system. Turbulence profiles as a function of height, C_N²(h), are derived through the inversion of the autocorrelation of scintillation patterns. Wind vertical profiles, V(h), are derived from the cross-correlation of a series of scintillation patterns relative to a reference pattern.

More information: J. J. Fuensalida et al., 2004, "Cute-SCIDAR: An Automatically Controlled SCIDAR Instrument for the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope", ING Newsl., 8, 15.

More photos of this instrument: http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/archive/jkt/instruments.html