Title: New Insights from MCAO Experiments in the Lab for Adaptive Optics

Eddie Laag
UC RIverside


The technique of Multi-Conjugate AO (MCAO) has applications across
multiple AO disciplines, and in a short time two systems will be in
regular use at leading observatories. After a short introduction to
the challenges of wide field of view AO, I will describe the
development of wavefront reconstruction and control algorithms for the
operation of an MCAO system at a simulated 8 meter telescope on the
the LAO testbed. I will also discuss results of some unique MCAO
experiments performed in the lab, including operation of MCAO in
psuedo-open-loop fashion. The results will be related to other wide
field of view approaches, such as ground layer AO (GLAO). Finally I
will explain how this research relates to current and future MCAO
projects.