Building on an
extensive and successful experience
in Adaptive Optics (AO) and on recent developments made in its funding
nations,
the Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope Corporation (CFHT) is studying the
VASAO
concept: an integrated AO system that would allow diffraction limited
imaging of
the whole sky in the visible, thanks to a polychromatic mode-less laser
guide
star coupled to a specially designed tip-tilt sensor used with
Pueo-Hou, a
refurbished and improved AO bonnette based on Pueo, the current CFHT AO
system.
VASAO will open
a new era in astronomical
observations in the visible, providing a 100% coverage of the Mauna Kea
sky at a
resolution better than the Hubble Space Telescope and similar in the
visible to what larger telescopes can obtain in the near-infrared.