The MAPS Adaptive Secondary Mirror: First Light, Laboratory Work, and Achievements

• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2309.14466
• Publication Date: 2023-10-03
• Authors: Johnson, Jess A.; Vaz, Amali; Montoya, Manny; Anugu, Narsireddy; Ard, Cameron; Carlson, Jared; Chapman, Kimberly; Durney, Olivier; Fellows, Chuck; Gardner, Andrew; Guyon, Olivier; Jannuzi, Buell; Jones, Ron; Kulesa, Craig; Long, Joseph; McEwen, Eden; Males, Jared; Mailhot, Emily; Sanchez, Jorge; Sivanandam, Suresh; Swanson, Robin; Taylor, Jacob; Vargas, Dan; West, Grant; Patience, Jennifer; Morzinski, Katie
• Keywords: FOS: Physical sciences; Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics; Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)

22 pages, 22 images, 2 tables, submitted to SPIE Proceedings (Unconventional Imaging, Sensing and Adaptive Optics 2023 Conference)<br/>The MMT Adaptive Optics exoPlanet Characterization System (MAPS) is a comprehensive update to the first generation MMT adaptive optics system (MMTAO), designed to produce a facility class suite of instruments whose purpose is to image nearby exoplanets. The system's adaptive secondary mirror (ASM), although comprised in part of legacy components from the MMTAO ASM, represents a major leap forward in engineering, structure and function. The subject of this paper is the design, operation, achievements and technical issues of the MAPS adaptive secondary mirror. We discuss laboratory preparation for on-sky engineering runs, the results of those runs and the issues we discovered, what we learned about those issues in a follow-up period of laboratory work, and the steps we are taking to mitigate them.<br/>