Adaptive Optics for the Extremely Large Telescope: overcoming Point Spread Function challenges with MORFEO
Abstract
MORFEO is the multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) relay for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) of the European Southern Observatory. It combines the adaptive mirrors of the telescope (M4-M5) with two post-focal deformable mirrors to deliver a stable, diffraction-limited point spread function over a field approaching 1'. MORFEO senses the atmosphere using six sodium laser guide stars and up to three natural guide stars distributed across a ∼160'' technical field, enabling sky coverage levels of order 50% at the South Galactic Pole. Through its two gravity-invariant ports, MORFEO feeds the MICADO first-light imager and spectrograph with a corrected field of 51''and HARMONI, the high-angular resolution integral field spectrograph. SHARP, a concept for a multi-object near-infrared spectrograph at the ELT, adopts MORFEO as its reference MCAO architecture for evaluating achievable image quality and scientific performance. In this paper, we summarise the MCAO capabilities delivered by MORFEO, its optical quality, tomographic performance, stability of the corrected focal plane, and the accuracy of telemetry-based PSF reconstruction, and discuss their relevance for the development of SHARP and other wide-field spectroscopic concepts at the ELT.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{arcidiacono2026adaptive,
title = {{Adaptive Optics for the Extremely Large Telescope: overcoming Point Spread Function challenges with MORFEO}},
author = {Carmelo Arcidiacono and Elisa Portaluri and Marco Gullieuszik and Michele Cantiello and Francesca Annibali and Guido Agapito and Demetrio Magrin and Vincenzo Cianniello and Paolo Ciliegi},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.06714},
eprint = {2611.06714},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.06714},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Adaptive Optics for the Extremely Large Telescope: overcoming Point Spread Function challenges with MORFEO
AU - Carmelo Arcidiacono
AU - Elisa Portaluri
AU - Marco Gullieuszik
AU - Michele Cantiello
AU - Francesca Annibali
AU - Guido Agapito
AU - Demetrio Magrin
AU - Vincenzo Cianniello
AU - Paolo Ciliegi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.06714
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.06714
AB - MORFEO is the multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) relay for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) of the European Southern Observatory. It combines the adaptive mirrors of the telescope (M4-M5) with two post-focal deformable mirrors to deliver a stable, diffraction-limited point spread function over a field approaching 1'. MORFEO senses the atmosphere using six sodium laser guide stars and up to three natural guide stars distributed across a ∼160'' technical field, enabling sky coverage levels of order 50% at the South Galactic Pole. Through its two gravity-invariant ports, MORFEO feeds the MICADO first-light imager and spectrograph with a corrected field of 51''and HARMONI, the high-angular resolution integral field spectrograph. SHARP, a concept for a multi-object near-infrared spectrograph at the ELT, adopts MORFEO as its reference MCAO architecture for evaluating achievable image quality and scientific performance. In this paper, we summarise the MCAO capabilities delivered by MORFEO, its optical quality, tomographic performance, stability of the corrected focal plane, and the accuracy of telemetry-based PSF reconstruction, and discuss their relevance for the development of SHARP and other wide-field spectroscopic concepts at the ELT.
ER -