| THE ING NEWSLETTER | No. 5, October 2001 |
| GENERAL | SCIENCE | TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION | OTHER NEWS FROM ING | TELESCOPE TIME |
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Other available formats: PDF
Front Cover Picture
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| This H-alpha image (top) of globular cluster M13 was taken with the WHT's adaptive-optics system NAOMI. The FWHM has been improved from 0.8 arcsec (natural seeing) to 0.4 arcsec, allowing many faint stars to be resolved. The image was taken during September 2001 tests of NAOMI's performance at optical wavelengths, and provides a realistic outlook of the AO potential at the William Herschel Telescope. Given that the median natural seeing on La Palma is about 0.7 arcsec, an image quality of ~0.3 arcsec in the R and I bands should be achieved regularly. [ GIF | TIFF ] |
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| AO capability at optical
wavelengths is not common place at other observatories. In the infrared,
where diffraction limited performance is more readily obtained, NAOMI has
already proven its capability. This image shows the K-band diffraction
limited (0.13 arcsec FWHM) central star of the planetary nebula BD+30 3639.
The nebula has a radius of ~2.5 arcsec on this image. Interestingly, field
stars as far away as 30 arcsec from the central star still enjoy very good
AO correction, indicating that on La Palma good AO correction can be achieved
over moderately wide fields. (See also article by Benn
et al. on page 19). [ JPEG | TIFF
]
More information: NAOMI First Results in the Optical |
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