After a long path of development, we are proud to see our DM3228 installed at the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii.
Beginning of the project
A few years ago, the ESO (European Southern Observatory), funded the development of a new large ALPAO deformable mirror to answer to the technical and scientific challenges of the next generation of astronomical instruments : the DM3228.
The DM3228, always based on ALPAO proprietary electro-magnetic technology, provides 3228 actuators, spaced every 1.5mm on a 90mm diameter pupil.
One of the major challenges of this deformable mirror was to meet the space constraints defined by the researchers within the installation. This product was developed, manufactured and tested, at our facility in Montbonnot, France. It was a meticulous task that required a lot of expertise from all of our team specialists (mechanical, electronic, optics, test & measurement…).
This first DM3228 delivered end of 2019 is currently in service at the MEUDON observatory (France).
Alpao’s DM at the Subaru Telescope
Earlier this year, we have delivered a second DM3228 to the research team at the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, USA. During this project we had to solve quite a number of issues but Alpao’s team never gave up and thanks to the customer support, we finally installed the deformable mirror a few months ago on the “SCExAO” instrument (Subaru Coronographic Extreme Adaptive Optics). The deformable mirror will allow, among other things, to bring to a next level the search for exoplanets! (Click here to watch the replay of our latest webinar on the subject).
At the SPIE Astronomical Telescope and Instrumentation conference held in Yokohama, Japan last June, Dr. Julien LOZI, Senior SCExAO Scientist at Subaru Telescope NAOJ, has presented some very promising first technical results on sky obtained using Alpao DM3228. For example, an unprecedented increase in contrast levels on the Subaru 8-meter class telescopes.
To learn more about this DM, please download our Technical Datasheet or contact us directly !