I. Montilla

LLCD operations using the Lunar Lasercom OGS Terminal

The paper describes the operations of ESA’s Optical Ground Station (OGS) during the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD) experiment, performed in October and November 2013 with NASA’s Lunar Atmospheric and Dust Environmental Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft. First the transmitter and receiver designs at the OGS telescope are described, which are geometrically separated to prevent cross-talk. Problems encountered and the lesson learned will be explained. As it turned the chosen arrangement was not sufficiently stable in terms of alignment and the paper will describe the solution found. A new industrial contract has been placed for improvement of the design of two solutions will be presented, which will both be tested in a follow-up laser communication campaign, scheduled for end March 2014.

3D imaging and wavefront sensing with a plenoptic objective

Plenoptic cameras have been developed over the last years as a passive method for 3d scanning. Several superresolution algorithms have been proposed in order to increase the resolution decrease associated with lightfield acquisition with a microlenses array. A number of multiview stereo algorithms have also been applied in order to extract depth information from plenoptic frames. Real time systems have been implemented using specialized hardware as Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) and Field Programmable Gates Arrays (FPGAs). In this paper, we will present our own implementations related with the aforementioned aspects but also two new developments consisting of a portable plenoptic objective to transform every conventional 2d camera in a 3D CAFADIS plenoptic camera, and the novel use of a plenoptic camera as a wavefront phase sensor for adaptive optics (OA). The terrestrial atmosphere degrades the telescope images due to the diffraction index changes associated with the turbulence. These changes require a high speed processing that justify the use of GPUs and FPGAs. Na artificial Laser Guide Stars (Na-LGS, 90km high) must be used to obtain the reference wavefront phase and the Optical Transfer Function of the system, but they are affected by defocus because of the finite distance to the telescope. Using the telescope as a plenoptic camera allows us to correct the defocus and to recover the wavefront phase tomographically. These advances significantly increase the versatility of the plenoptic camera, and provides a new contribution to relate the wave optics and computer vision fields, as many authors claim.

Concepts, laboratory, and telescope test results of the plenoptic camera as a wavefront sensor

The plenoptic camera has been proposed as an alternative wavefront sensor adequate for extended objects within the context of the design of the European Solar Telescope (EST), but it can also be used with point sources. Originated in the field of the Electronic Photography, the plenoptic camera directly samples the Light Field function, which is the four - dimensional representation of all the light entering a camera. Image formation can then be seen as the result of the photography operator applied to this function, and many other features of the light field can be exploited to extract information of the scene, like depths computation to extract 3D imaging or, as it will be specifically addressed in this paper, wavefront sensing. The underlying concept of the plenoptic camera can be adapted to the case of a telescope by using a lenslet array of the same f-number placed at the focal plane, thus obtaining at the detector a set of pupil images corresponding to every sampled point of view. This approach will generate a generalization of Shack-Hartmann, Curvature and Pyramid wavefront sensors in the sense that all those could be considered particular cases of the plenoptic wavefront sensor, because the information needed as the starting point for those sensors can be derived from the plenoptic image. Laboratory results obtained with extended objects, phase plates and commercial interferometers, and even telescope observations using stars and the Moon as an extended object are presented in the paper, clearly showing the capability of the plenoptic camera to behave as a wavefront sensor.

Atmospherical wavefront phases using the plenoptic sensor (real data)

Plenoptic cameras have been developed the last years as a passive method for 3d scanning, allowing focal stack capture from a single shot. But data recorded by this kind of sensors can also be used to extract the wavefront phases associated to the atmospheric turbulence in an astronomical observation. The terrestrial atmosphere degrades the telescope images due to the diffraction index changes associated to the turbulence. Na artificial Laser Guide Stars (Na-LGS, 90km high) must be used to obtain the reference wavefront phase and the Optical Transfer Function of the system, but they are affected by defocus because of the finite distance to the telescope. Using the telescope as a plenoptic camera allows us to correct the defocus and to recover the wavefront phase tomographically, taking advantage of the two principal characteristics of the plenoptic sensors at the same time: 3D scanning and wavefront sensing. Then, the plenoptic sensors can be studied and used as an alternative wavefront sensor for Adaptive Optics, particularly relevant when Extremely Large Telescopes projects are being undertaken. In this paper, we will present the first observational wavefront phases extracted from real astronomical observations, using punctual and extended objects, and we show that the restored wavefronts match the Kolmogorov atmospheric turbulence.

Performance comparison of wavefront reconstruction and control algorithms for Extremely Large Telescopes.

Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) are very challenging with respect to their adaptive optics (AO) requirements. Their diameters and the specifications required by the astronomical science for which they are being designed imply a huge increment in the number of degrees of freedom in the deformable mirrors. Faster algorithms are needed to implement the real-time reconstruction and control in AO at the required speed. We present the results of a study of the AO correction performance of three different algorithms applied to the case of a 42-m ELT: one considered as a reference, the matrix-vector multiply (MVM) algorithm; and two considered fast, the fractal iterative method (FrIM) and the Fourier transform reconstructor (FTR). The MVM and the FrIM both provide a maximum a posteriori estimation, while the FTR provides a least-squares one. The algorithms are tested on the European Southern Observatory (ESO) end-to-end simulator, OCTOPUS. The performance is compared using a natural guide star single-conjugate adaptive optics configuration. The results demonstrate that the methods have similar performance in a large variety of simulated conditions. However, with respect to system misregistrations, the fast algorithms demonstrate an interesting robustness.

ELT instrument concepts: impact on telescope and adaptive optics design

We report on the development of instrument concepts for a European ELT, expanding on studies carried out as part of the ESO OWL concept. A range of instruments were chosen to demonstrate how an ELT could meet or approach the goals generated by the OPTICON science team, and used to push the specifications and requirements of telescope and adaptive optics systems. Preliminary conclusions are presented, along with a plan for further more detailed instrument design and technology developments. This activity is supported by the European Community (Framework Programme 6, ELT Design Study, contract number 011863).

Design and Laboratory Results of a Plenoptic Objective: From 2D to 3D With a Standard Camera

The plenoptic camera was originally created to allow the capture of the light field, a four-variable volume representation of all rays and their directions, which allows the creation by synthesis of an image of the observed object. This method has several advantages with regard to 3D capture systems based on stereo cameras since it does not need frame synchronization or geometric and color calibration. It also has many applications, from 3DTV to medical imaging. A plenoptic camera uses a microlens array to measure the radiance and direction of all the light rays in a scene. The array is placed at a distance from the principal lens, which is conjugated to the distance where the scene is situated, and the sensor is at the focal plane of the microlenses. We have designed a plenoptic objective that incorporates a microlens array and a relay system that reimages the microlens plane. This novel approach has proven successful. Placing it on a camera, the plenoptic objective creates a virtual microlens plane in front of the camera CCD, allowing it to capture the light field of the scene. In this paper we present the experimental results showing that depth information is perfectly captured when using an external plenoptic objective. Using this objective transforms any camera into a 3D sensor, opening up a wide range of applications from microscopy to astronomy .

Comparison between observation and simulation of sodium LGS return flux with a 20W CW laser on Tenerife

We report on the comparison between observations and simulations of a completed 12-month field observation campaign at Observatorio del Teide, Tenerife, using ESOs transportable 20 watt CW Wendelstein laser guide star system. This mission has provided sodium photon return flux measurements of unprecedented detail regarding variation of laser power, polarization and sodium D2b repumping. The Raman fiber laser and projector technology are very similar to that employed in the 4LGSF/AOF laser facility, recently installed and commissioned at the VLT in Paranal. The simulations are based on the open source LGSBloch density matrix simulation package and we find good overall agreement with experimental data.

Depth map extraction from light field microscopes

The CAFADIS plenoptic camera was mounted onto a Leica M205A stereomicroscope and used as a prototype light field microscope. The ability to generate image stacks focused at different focal planes from a single plenoptic image was demonstrated. The focal stacks were used to create a composite extended focus image and depth map. The positions of the focal planes of the stack were measured experimentally and the data used to calibrate a computational model of the plane distribution. The resulting microscope images have an extended depth of field and a corresponding depth map with real distance estimates.

Multi-conjugate AO for the European Solar Telescope

The European Solar Telescope (EST) will be a 4-meter diameter world-class facility, optimized for studies of the magnetic coupling between the deep photosphere and upper chromosphere. It will specialize in high spatial resolution observations and therefore it has been designed to incorporate an innovative built-in Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics system (MCAO). It combines a narrow field high order sensor that will provide the information to correct the ground layer and a wide field low order sensor for the high altitude mirrors used in the MCAO mode. One of the challenging particularities of solar AO is that it has to be able to correct the turbulence for a wide range of observing elevations, from zenith to almost horizon. Also, seeing is usually worse at day-time, and most science is done at visible wavelengths. Therefore, the system has to include a large number of high altitude deformable mirrors. In the case of the EST, an arrangement of 4 high altitude DMs is used. Controlling such a number of mirrors makes it necessary to use fast reconstruction algorithms to deal with such large amount of degrees of freedom. For this reason, we have studied the performance of the Fractal Iterative Method (FriM) and the Fourier Transform Reconstructor (FTR), to the EST MCAO case. Using OCTOPUS, the end-to-end simulator of the European Southern Observatory, we have performed several simulations with both algorithms, being able to reach the science requirement of a homogeneous Strehl higher that 50% all over the 1 arcmin field of view.