‘imaka

'imaka is a technology and science demonstration experiment to answer the question: "How wide a field of view can adaptive optics correct?". This experiment, led by principle investigator, Mark Chun (UH IfA) and project scientist, Jessica Lu (UC Berkeley) will be deployed on the UH 2.2 m telescope on Maunakea on the Big Island of Hawaii in Fall 2016. 'imaka is a  natural-guide star GLAO system with a 0.4-degree field of view and visible and near-IR focal plane cameras. The project has the following goals. 

Science Goals: Demonstrate photometric/astrometric gains in crowded stellar fields, color/morphology/shape extraction in deep extragalactic fields, and astrometric gains in deep/faint fields such as dwarf satellites around the Milky Way. 

GLAO Performance Goals: Demonstrate understanding of the GLAO error budget and design trades and the science gains with respect to the performance metrics such as FWHM and noise equivalent area. We are seeking students and postdocs interested in working on the project as we move on-sky in Fall 2016.