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Christoph Baranec
Senior Postdoctoral Scholar in Astronomy |
I am the principal investigator for the Robo-AO robotic laser adaptive optics and science system. Robo-AO will enable diffraction limited imaging in the visible and infrared for up to hundreds of targets per night and will enable unique large scale surveys and rapid imaging not feasible on large aperture telescope AO systems.
I designed and built the high-order wavefront sensor for Palomar Observatory's PALM-3000 extreme adaptive optics system. PALM-3000 will overcome the blurring effects of the Earth's atmosphere to unprecedented levels, enabling the direct imaging of worlds in orbit around nearby stars. PALM-3000's high-order wavefront sensor saw 'first-light' on March 22nd, 2011, closing the adaptive optics loop with the low-order deformable mirror. Shortly thereafter on June 22nd, full AO correction was achieved with the 3.3 kilo-actuator deformable mirror. Read about the design of the wavefront sensor in SPIE.
The focus of my graduate research was to build and commission the MMT's multiple laser guide star adaptive optics system (along with several other very talented students and researchers.) Read about the laser system and the most recent results presented in Nature and a UA press release.
Photos of MMT courtesy Thomas Stalcup.