An automatically controlled SCIDAR instrument for Roque de los Muchachos Observatory

Fuensalida, J. J.; Delgado, Jose M.; Garcia-Lorenzo, Begona M.; Hoegemann, Claudia K.; Reyes, Marcos; Verde, Manuel; Vernin, Jean
Referencia bibliográfica

Second Backaskog Workshop on Extremely Large Telescopes. Edited by Ardeberg, Arne L.; Andersen, Torben. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 5382, pp. 643-647 (2004).

Fecha de publicación:
7
2004
Número de autores
7
Número de autores del IAC
6
Número de citas
2
Número de citas referidas
1
Descripción
SCIDAR has proved to be the most efficient technique to obtain the optical vertical structure of the atmospheric turbulence measured from ground level. However, the common procedure of obtaining the data, as well as its 'a posteriori' treatment, requires a huge number of highly qualified human resources. A systematic monitoring program becomes really onerous. Consequently, the development of a full automatically controlled SCIDAR device seems to be evidently justified. We have recently developed a SCIDAR instrument providing high performances in automatic control and data reduction, presently in test pahse. It has been designed for the Jacobus Kapstein Telescope at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, with the goal of monitoring the vertical turbulence with a high temporal coverage. This device is not only restricted to the JKT but can also be used for other telescopes.