People involved at OAB: Diolaiti
The LINC-NIRVANA project involves the Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri and three German institutes: Max-Planck Institut für Astronomie (Heidelberg), Universität zu Köln, Max-Planck Institut für Radioastronomie (Bonn). LINC-NIRVANA is a near-infrared imaging interferometer for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), designed to achieve the maximum angular resolution possible with LBT, corresponding to its longest baseline. The beams collected by the two telescope units are first corrected by two adaptive optics systems, then co-phased by a fast mirror and combined inside a cryogenic near-infrared camera, forming a focal plane interference pattern. The two adaptive optics systems are based on the layer-oriented multi-conjugate approach. Each of them includes two units: a wavefront sensor conjugated to the ground layer, driving the adaptive secondary mirror of LBT, and a mid-high layer wavefront sensor, which may be conjugated to any other layer up to an altitude of 15 km and may drive up to two deformable mirrors.
The INAF partners are mainly in charge of the design and construction of the wavefront sensing units. Emiliano Diolaiti collaborates with the Arcetri group on this task; during the year 2003 he has realized the preliminary optical design of the wavefront sensors and he has contributed to the definition of the mechanical design; moreover he has collaborated with the Heidelberg group on the verification of the cryogenic camera optics design. The instrument has passed a preliminary review. The design phase is still in progress and will be completed before the final review, presumably in late 2004.
