Air Force telescope
receives visual aid

A system to take the twinkle out of
stars arrives on Haleakala

By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

A $40 million adaptive optics system has arrived on Haleakala, Maui, that will take the twinkle out of stars when used with the Air Force telescope.

Distortions in the atmosphere make a star appear to twinkle and cause space images to appear hazy, said 1st Lt. H. John Busque, the Air Force Research Laboratory's system program manager.

"This system compensates for the distortion and takes away the twinkle, and objects become sharper," he said.

With the new technology, the Haleakala telescope should be able to get as clear pictures of objects in space as does the Hubble Space Telescope, Rick Garcia, Air Force laboratory spokesman, said by telephone from New Mexico.

The adaptive optics system arrived last week at the laboratory's Space Surveillance Complex at Haleakala.

Two 18-wheel tractor-trailers packed with the state-of-the-art system were loaded into a C-5 Galaxy at Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York and flown to Maui.

The 18-wheelers then transported the system to the top of the mountain.

The system will be installed in a vibration-free, thermally controlled room 60 feet below the Department of Defense's largest optical telescope.

The telescope -- called Advanced Electro-Optical System -- has a 3.67-meter (about 12-foot) diameter primary mirror.

It is used to image satellites as they pass overhead "and figure out what the satellite does from what it looks like," Garcia said.

For instance, he said a problem developed with the Discovery space shuttle in which John Glenn was riding in November.

"They were not sure what the problem was and thought if they could look at the back end of it, they could figure out what the problem was."

They were able to locate the problem with images taken by the Defense Department telescopes on Haleakala and at Kirkland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M., Garcia said.

The way Maui is configured, he said, light is captured through the telescope and shuttled underneath to several labs. When the facility was designed, it was envisioned that nondefense organizations could use one or more of those rooms for research, he said.

"Right now, it's still being assembled as a complete system. It's not to the level of sophistication it's designed for."

The light will pass from the telescope down a long tube that is thermally controlled to the room where the adaptive optics bench will be installed.

Busque said, "More than 20 perfectly aligned optics will take a large light beam and shrink both its focal length and beam size to a tighter and more precise beam of light."

The system will be tested during the summer, and is expected to be fully operational by June 30, 2000, Garcia said.