THE UNITED KINGDOM INFRARED TELESCOPE
ANNUAL REPORT
1995 AND 1996

5. Instrumentation Development

5.4. University of Hawaii Adaptive Optics System (UH-AO)

The Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii is developing a curvature-sensing adaptive-optics system with 36 subapertures. This system is specifically intended for use on UKIRT, and should offer diffraction-limited imaging at least down to the J band (FWHM 0.06 arcseconds). Initially UH-AO will be used with the UH imager QUIRC, but later it is planned to utilise the UKIRT imager UFTI, behind a 3:1 focal enlarger to provide pixel scale suited to sampling such small images. This configuration would be available for the general use of UKIRT observers, offering the U.K. community an exciting option for very high resolution near-infrared imaging.