Conversations in Optics
First Light for ESO’s Four Laser Guide Star Facility
OPN talks with Domenico Bonaccini Calia and Wilhelm Kaenders, two of the key players in the design and execution of the new Four Laser Guide Star Facility at the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.
Four beams emerge from the new laser system on Unit Telescope 4 of the Very Large Telescope in Chile. [ESO / F. Kamphues]
On 26 April 2016, an event at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile marked the brilliant first light for the four powerful fiber lasers that form a crucial part of the new telescope’s Adaptive Optics Facility. Combined, the fiber lasers form the Four Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF) and are, according to ESO, the “most successful transfers of ESO-developed technology to industry.”
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