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LATTE: the LAser Tip/Tilt Experiment [dataset] Open Access

Laser guide stars (LGS) for adaptive optics (AO) are essential technologies for correcting the effects of atmospheric turbulence in astronomical observations as well as in optical feeder links for space communication, quantum entanglement-encrypted satellite communication and space-debris optical momentum transfer. However, the LGS tip-tilt measured by the LGS wavefront sensors in conventional bistatic configurations is affected by both the uplink path through the atmosphere and the downlink path, making it impossible to determine the atmospheric tip/tilt modes from the LGS. We present the experimental results of applying a novel variation of the Elongation Perspective method to retrieve and compensate in real time the uplink tip/tilt, by measuring the transverse motion of the mesospheric LGS plume and several background stars with an auxiliary telescope system. This technique will be particularly useful in optical communications, for example using LGS-AO for optical feeder links to Geostationary spacecrafts where sensing and correcting tip-tilt in the direction of the point ahead angle of the optical feeder link improves considerably its intended use performance. In this paper we present the successful results from an on-sky experiment performed in May 2024 using the Wendelstein LGS Unit equipped with a 70~W 589~nm laser and the 2.5~m Isaac Newton Telescope, in La Palma. The residual tilt motion between the LGS beacon compared to a superimposed with a natural guide star was reduced from 0.27" to 0.17" in closed loop, demonstrating the first-known successful tilt pre-compensation of an uplink laser beam.

Descriptions

Resource type

Dataset

Contributors

Creator: Hartley, K. E. ¹
Contact person: Hartley, K. E. ¹
Creator: Osborn, James ¹
Data curator: Bonacinni Calia, Domenico ¹
Data collector: Jenkins, David ²
Data collector: Alaluf, David ²
Data collector: Pedreros Bustos, Felipe ³
Data collector: Centrone, Mauro ⁴
Data collector: Facinni, Marco ⁴
Editor: Townson, Matthew ⁵
Editor: Barrett, Kathryn ¹
Editor: Mata Calvo, Ramon ²
Editor: Barrios, Ricardo ⁶
Editor: Reeves, Andrew ¹

¹ Durham University, UK
² European Space Agency, Netherlands
³ European Southern Observatory, Germany
⁴ INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy
⁵ Northumbria University, UK
⁶ Airbus Defence and Space, Germany

Funder

UK Research and Innovation

Research methods

Elongation Perspective method for pre-compensating LGS uplink beam

Other description

The scoring camera data in open and closed loop.

Keyword

Laser Guide Stars
Adaptive Optics
Atmospheric Optical Turbulence

Subject

Laser guide star adaptive optics
Optics, Adaptive
Atmospheric turbulence--Optical properties

Location

Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, Canary Islands, Spain

Language

Cited in

Identifier

ark:/32150/r3nc580m645
doi:10.15128/r3nc580m645

Rights

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY)

Publisher

Durham University

Date Created

File Details

Depositor

K.E. Hartley

Date Uploaded

27 July 2026, 13:07:17

Date Modified

28 July 2026, 14:07:27

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