The multi-conjugate adaptive optics system of the New Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory

We report on the multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) system of the New Solar Telescope (NST) at Big Bear Solar Observatory which has been integrated in October 2013 and is now available for MCAO experiments. The NST MCAO system features three deformable mirrors (DM), and it is purposely flexible in order to offer a valuable facility for development of solar MCAO. Two of the deformable mirrors are dedicated to compensation of field dependent aberrations due to high-altitude turbulence, whereas the other deformable mirror compensates field independent aberrations in a pupil image. The opto-mechanical design allows for changing the conjugate plane of the two high-altitude DMs independently between two and nine kilometers. The pupil plane DM can be placed either in a pupil image upstream of the high-altitude DMs or downstream. This capability allows for performing experimental studies on the impact of the geometrical order of the deformable mirrors and the conjugate position. The control system is flexible, too, which allows for real-world analysis of various control approaches. This paper gives an overview of the NST MCAO system and reveals the first MCAO corrected image taken at Big Bear Solar Observatory.