Current status of PAPYRUS : the pyramid based adaptive optics system at LAM/OHP

TL;DR

PAPYRUS is a modular, pyramid-based adaptive optics system at OHP designed for on-sky wavefront control experiments, education, and testing new algorithms with a focus on simplicity and pedagogic use.

Contribution

This paper presents the design, components, and current status of PAPYRUS, one of the first pedagogic pyramid AO systems tested on-sky.

Findings

System successfully installed and operational at OHP.

Allows on-sky testing of pyramid wavefront sensing algorithms.

Serves as an educational tool for AO training.

Abstract

The Provence Adaptive optics Pyramid Run System (PAPYRUS) is a pyramid-based Adaptive Optics (AO) system that will be installed at the Coude focus of the 1.52m telescope (T152) at the Observatoire de Haute Provence (OHP). The project is being developed by PhD students and Postdocs across France with support from staff members consolidating the existing expertise and hardware into an R&D testbed. This testbed allows us to run various pyramid wavefront sensing (WFS) control algorithms on-sky and experiment on new concepts for wavefront control with additional benefit from the high number of available nights at this telescope. It will also function as a teaching tool for students during the planned AO summer school at OHP. To our knowledge, this is one of the first pedagogic pyramid-based AO systems on-sky. The key components of PAPYRUS are a 17x17 actuators Alpao deformable mirror with a Alpao RTC, a very low noise camera OCAM2k, and a 4-faces glass pyramid. PAPYRUS is designed in order to be a simple and modular system to explore wavefront control with a pyramid WFS on sky. We present an overview of PAPYRUS, a description of the opto-mechanical design and the current status of the project.