The laser guide star program for the LBT

Abstract

Laser guide star adaptive optics and interferometry are currently revolutionizing ground-based near-IR astronomy, as demonstrated at various large telescopes. The Large Binocular Telescope from the beginning included adaptive optics in the telescope design. With the deformable secondary mirrors and a suite of instruments taking advantage of the AO capabilities, the LBT will play an important role in addressing major scientific questions. Extending from a natural guide star based system, towards a laser guide stars will multiply the number of targets that can be observed. In this paper we present the laser guide star and wavefront sensor program as currently being planned for the LBT. This program will provide a multi Rayleigh guide star constellation for wide field ground layer correction taking advantage of the multi object spectrograph and imager LUCIFER in a first step. The already foreseen upgrade path will deliver an on axis diffraction limited mode with LGS AO based on tomography or additional sodium guide stars to even further enhance the scientific use of the LBT including the interferometric capabilities.