Galactic astronomy with AO: nearby star clusters and moving groups

Observations of Galactic star clusters and objects in nearby moving groups recorded with Adaptive Optics (AO) systems on Gemini South are discussed. These include observations of open and globular clusters with the GeMS system, and high Strehl L' observations of the moving group member Sirius obtained with NICI. The latter data fail to reveal a brown dwarf companion with a mass ≥ 0.02M⊗ in an 18 × 18 arcsec 2 area around Sirius A. Potential future directions for AO studies of nearby star clusters and groups with systems on large telescopes are also presented.