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Title: "Can small beat the big?"

Dr. A. N. Ramaprakash
Inter-University Center for Astronomy & Astrophysics, Pune, India
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When:  Wednesday, May 16 at 1.15 p.m.
Where: 2nd Floor Seminar Room

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Abstract:

Large telescopes (4m diameter apertures and bigger) are relatively few in number and getting observing time on them is highly competitive. On the other hand, there exists an army of productive 1-2m class telescopes at fairly good observing sites. An affordable laser guide star Adaptive Optics (AO) system on these small telescopes which offer good sky coverage, diffraction limited imaging and robotic operation will open up exciting new observational possibilities such large surveys, rapid follow ups etc. In this talk I will share the experience with the concept, design, development and deployment of such an AO system.
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