Matthew Townson's Outputs (8)

The 24hSHIMM: a continuous day and night turbulence monitor for optical communications (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Griffiths, R., Osborn, J., Farley, O., Butterley, T., Townson, M., & Wilson, R. (2023, January). The 24hSHIMM: a continuous day and night turbulence monitor for optical communications. Presented at Free-Space Laser Communications XXXV, San Francisco, United States

We present the 24-hour Shack-Hartmann Image Motion Monitor (24hSHIMM), the first truly continuous, 24-hour optical turbulence monitor. Atmospheric optical turbulence is a significant limitation for free-space optical communications and other technolo... Read More about The 24hSHIMM: a continuous day and night turbulence monitor for optical communications.

Phase A AO system design and performance for MOSAIC at the ELT (2018)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Morris, T., Basden, A., Calcines-Rosario, A., Dohlen, K., Dubbeldam, C., El Hadi, K., Fitzsimons, E., Fusco, T., Gendron, É., Hammer, F., Jagourel, P., Jenkins, D., Morel, C., Morris, S., Rousset, G., Townson, M., Vola, P., & Younger, E. (2018, June). Phase A AO system design and performance for MOSAIC at the ELT. Presented at Adaptive Optics Systems VI: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2018, Austin, Texas

MOSAIC is a mixed-mode multiple object spectrograph planned for the ELT that uses a tiled focal plane to support a variety of observing modes. The MOSAIC AO system uses 4 LGS WFS and up to 4 NGS WFS positioned anywhere within the full 10 arcminute EL... Read More about Phase A AO system design and performance for MOSAIC at the ELT.

Photometry and Spectrum measurements of the Laser Guide Star beam emission at Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos with the Gran Telescope Canarias (2017)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Lombardi, G., Calia, B., Centrone, M., Talavera, M. R. G., Morris, T., Pfrommer, T., Basden, A., Vidal, F., Gendron, E., Rousset, G., Mayers, R., Osborn, J., Reeves, A., Talbot, R., Townson, M., Lavers, A. C., & Postigoh, A. D. U. (2017, June). Photometry and Spectrum measurements of the Laser Guide Star beam emission at Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos with the Gran Telescope Canarias. Presented at Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes 5, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

In the past years ESO has built together with industry a transportable Laser Guide Star Unit (WLGSU) to test the laser technology while supporting some strategic experiments for the LGS-AO technologies. Since July 2016, the WLGSU has been installed a... Read More about Photometry and Spectrum measurements of the Laser Guide Star beam emission at Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos with the Gran Telescope Canarias.

Reducing the Field of View in Correlating Wavefront Sensors for Solar Adaptive Optics (2017)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Townson, M. J., & Saunter, C. D. (2017, June). Reducing the Field of View in Correlating Wavefront Sensors for Solar Adaptive Optics. Presented at Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes 5 (AO4ELT5), Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

Wavefront sensing for solar adaptive optics currently requires the use of extended-field Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors. Such wavefront sensors suffer from a reduced sensitivity to high altitude turbulence due effects of measuring wavefront gradien... Read More about Reducing the Field of View in Correlating Wavefront Sensors for Solar Adaptive Optics.

Preliminary on-sky results of the CANARY experiment with an ELT-elongated sodium LGS (2017)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Bardou, L., Gendron, E., Rousset, G., Gratadour, D., Basden, A. G., Bonaccini, D., Buey, T., Centrone, M., Chemla, F., Lombardi, G., Marchetti, E., Morris, T. J., Myers, R. M., Osborn, J., Townson, M. J., Vidal, F., & Reyes Garcia-Talavera, M. (2017, June). Preliminary on-sky results of the CANARY experiment with an ELT-elongated sodium LGS. Presented at Adaptive Optics for Extremely Large Telescopes 5, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

We present on-sky results of wavefront sensing on an elongated LGS. These results are derived from observations made with the multi-object AO demonstrator CANARY on the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) in La Palma. The laser guide star is produced us... Read More about Preliminary on-sky results of the CANARY experiment with an ELT-elongated sodium LGS.

Turbulence profiling for adaptive optics tomographic reconstructors (2016)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Laidlaw, D. J., Osborn, J., Wilson, R. W., Morris, T. J., Butterley, T., Reeves, A. P., Townson, M. J., Gendron, É., Vidal, F., & Morel, C. (2016, July). Turbulence profiling for adaptive optics tomographic reconstructors

Correlation wavefront sensing for extended objects (2016)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Townson, M. J., Love, G. D., Kellerer, A., & Saunter, C. D. (2016, July). Correlation wavefront sensing for extended objects. Presented at Adaptive Optics Systems V., Edinburgh

Daytime site characterisation of La Palma, and its relation to night-time conditions (2014)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Townson, M., Kellerer, A., Osborn, J., Butterley, T., Morris, T., & Wilson, R. (2014, December). Daytime site characterisation of La Palma, and its relation to night-time conditions. Presented at Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V, Montréal, Quebec

This paper presents preliminary daytime profiles taken using a Wide-Field Shack-Hartmann Sensor at the Swedish Solar Telescope (SST), La Palma. These are contrasted against Stereo-SCIDAR data from corresponding nights to assess the validity of the as... Read More about Daytime site characterisation of La Palma, and its relation to night-time conditions.