GMT AGWS

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is a next generation extremely large telescope that combines seven 8.4-meter primary mirror segments with seven 1-meter secondary mirror segments to achieve a total 25.4-meter diameter primary mirror. To maintain image quality across in the GMT, an active optics system is employed to sense and control the position and curvature of the seven primary and secondary mirror segment pairs. The Acquisition, Guide and Wavefront Sensing Subsystem (AGWS) consists of four probes which serve as sensors for the active optics system. Each probe has a beam-splitter that passes infrared light to a Dispersed Fringe Sensor (DFS) for primary and secondary mirror phasing. A prototype DFS is being built to demonstrate that a DFS effectively meets the requirements of a GMT phasing sensor.

For my undergraduate senior thesis, I worked on the phasing analysis software, construction of part of the prototype, and characterization of the prototype throughput. You can find more information in our paper.

Get in touch at danielle.frostig@cfa.harvard.edu