Products
ClearStar AO™
HartSCI’s ClearStar AO™ system represents a paradigm shift in high resolution imaging. For the first time, high-performance image sharpening is available as an off-the-shelf product for small to mid-size professional telescopes. ClearStar AO™ overcomes atmospheric blurring to deliver diffraction-limited image quality to science instruments operating in the 750 – 1000 nm wavebands. Built-in hardware and software tools support full and automatic internal calibration. The system connects to the outside world through a simple ethernet port and comes with a full-featured browser-based graphical user interface that can be run on any computer. ClearStarAO™ can also be controlled through an Application Programmers’ Interface (API), enabling fully automatic operation and seamless integration into the observatory environment.
New for 2023!
ClearStar AO+™
Announcing the ClearStar AO+ system that builds on HartSCI's proven ClearStar AO platform. The new addition to the ClearStar AO product line provides enhancements specifically for 1 m telescopes that take advantage of the larger aperture. Higher actuator count deformable mirrors and improved wavefront sensing deliver sharper images with higher contrast. Whether your interest is imaging, spectroscopy or interferometry, astronomy or space domain awareness, ClearStar AO+ will enable faster data acquisition at higher quality, allowing you to do more with your telescope than ever before.
ClearStar FF
ClearStar FF combines HartSCI’s ClearStar AO™ system with our Fiber Feed Unit. Intended primarily to support a high-throughput fiber-fed spectrograph, the ClearStar FF is designed to feed either single-mode or multi-mode fibers with a numerical aperture of 0.16. The AO system corrects the atmospheric blur and ensures that the object light remains glued to the tip of the fiber by removing both atmospheric and mount tip-tilt errors, thereby maximizing the coupling efficiency.
Fiber Feed Unit
HartSCI’s Fiber Feed Unit (FFU) is available to mount directly to the Nasmyth or Cassegrain port of your telescope. Contact us with the required back focal distance and we will provide an appropriate spacer to match. The FFU includes an acquisition and guide camera with feedback to a rapid steering mechanism to keep the target well centered on the fiber tip.
COMING SOON
Laser Comm
Free space optical communication can deliver higher data transmission bandwidth at lower power than traditional microwave links while also offering secure connections that are difficult to intercept. Global data networks based on constellations of satellites in low-Earth orbit are being put in place now and will be supported by laser links back down to the ground. But the same atmospheric turbulence that corrupts astronomical imaging also badly degrades link stability and transmission rates. HartSCI’s AO technology offers the solution. By coupling our ClearStar AO™ system, in a version tailored to the 1530 – 1625 nm C and L bands, to our Fiber Feed Unit, we offer a complete package designed to fit seamlessly between the collecting/transmitting telescope and the optical modem.
Click on the movie to see (and hear!) data collected with HartSCI’s ClearStar AO™ system showing how the light coupled into the optical fiber of a laser communications receiver fluctuates - until the AO system is turned on.
Products
ClearStar AO™
HartSCI’s ClearStar AO™ system represents a paradigm shift in high resolution imaging. For the first time, high-performance image sharpening is available as an off-the-shelf product for small to mid-size professional telescopes. ClearStar AO™ overcomes atmospheric blurring to deliver diffraction-limited image quality to science instruments operating in the 750 – 1000 nm wavebands. Built-in hardware and software tools support full and automatic internal calibration. The system connects to the outside world through a simple ethernet port and comes with a full-featured browser-based graphical user interface that can be run on any computer. ClearStarAO™ can also be controlled through an Application Programmers’ Interface (API), enabling fully automatic operation and seamless integration into the observatory environment.
New for 2023!
ClearStar AO+™
Announcing the ClearStar AO+ system that builds on HartSCI's proven ClearStar AO platform. The new addition to the ClearStar AO product line provides enhancements specifically for 1 m telescopes that take advantage of the larger aperture. Higher actuator count deformable mirrors and improved wavefront sensing deliver sharper images with higher contrast. Whether your interest is imaging, spectroscopy or interferometry, astronomy or space domain awareness, ClearStar AO+ will enable faster data acquisition at higher quality, allowing you to do more with your telescope than ever before.
ClearStar FF
ClearStar FF combines HartSCI’s ClearStar AO™ system with our Fiber Feed Unit. Intended primarily to support a high-throughput fiber-fed spectrograph, the ClearStar FF is designed to feed either single-mode or multi-mode fibers with a numerical aperture of 0.16. The AO system corrects the atmospheric blur and ensures that the object light remains glued to the tip of the fiber by removing both atmospheric and mount tip-tilt errors, thereby maximizing the coupling efficiency.
Fiber Feed Unit
HartSCI’s Fiber Feed Unit (FFU) is available to mount directly to the Nasmyth or Cassegrain port of your telescope. Contact us with the required back focal distance and we will provide an appropriate spacer to match. The FFU includes an acquisition and guide camera with feedback to a rapid steering mechanism to keep the target well centered on the fiber tip.
COMING SOON
Laser Comm
Free space optical communication can deliver higher data transmission bandwidth at lower power than traditional microwave links while also offering secure connections that are difficult to intercept. Global data networks based on constellations of satellites in low-Earth orbit are being put in place now and will be supported by laser links back down to the ground. But the same atmospheric turbulence that corrupts astronomical imaging also badly degrades link stability and transmission rates. HartSCI’s AO technology offers the solution. By coupling our ClearStar AO™ system, in a version tailored to the 1530 – 1625 nm C and L bands, to our Fiber Feed Unit, we offer a complete package designed to fit seamlessly between the collecting/transmitting telescope and the optical modem.
Click on the movie to see (and hear!) data collected with HartSCI’s ClearStar AO™ system showing how the light coupled into the optical fiber of a laser communications receiver fluctuates - until the AO system is turned on.
Products
ClearStar AO™
HartSCI’s ClearStar AO™ system represents a paradigm shift in high resolution imaging. For the first time, high-performance image sharpening is available as an off-the-shelf product for small to mid-size professional telescopes. ClearStar AO™ overcomes atmospheric blurring to deliver diffraction-limited image quality to science instruments operating in the 750 – 1000 nm wavebands. Built-in hardware and software tools support full and automatic internal calibration. The system connects to the outside world through a simple ethernet port and comes with a full-featured browser-based graphical user interface that can be run on any computer. ClearStarAO™ can also be controlled through an Application Programmers’ Interface (API), enabling fully automatic operation and seamless integration into the observatory environment.
New for 2023!
ClearStar AO+™
Announcing the ClearStar AO+ system that builds on HartSCI's proven ClearStar AO platform. The new addition to the ClearStar AO product line provides enhancements specifically for 1 m telescopes that take advantage of the larger aperture. Higher actuator count deformable mirrors and improved wavefront sensing deliver sharper images with higher contrast. Whether your interest is imaging, spectroscopy or interferometry, astronomy or space domain awareness, ClearStar AO+ will enable faster data acquisition at higher quality, allowing you to do more with your telescope than ever before.
ClearStar FF
ClearStar FF combines HartSCI’s ClearStar AO™ system with our Fiber Feed Unit. Intended primarily to support a high-throughput fiber-fed spectrograph, the ClearStar FF is designed to feed either single-mode or multi-mode fibers with a numerical aperture of 0.16. The AO system corrects the atmospheric blur and ensures that the object light remains glued to the tip of the fiber by removing both atmospheric and mount tip-tilt errors, thereby maximizing the coupling efficiency.
Fiber Feed Unit
HartSCI’s Fiber Feed Unit (FFU) is available to mount directly to the Nasmyth or Cassegrain port of your telescope. Contact us with the required back focal distance and we will provide an appropriate spacer to match. The FFU includes an acquisition and guide camera with feedback to a rapid steering mechanism to keep the target well centered on the fiber tip.
COMING SOON
Laser Comm
Free space optical communication can deliver higher data transmission bandwidth at lower power than traditional microwave links while also offering secure connections that are difficult to intercept. Global data networks based on constellations of satellites in low-Earth orbit are being put in place now and will be supported by laser links back down to the ground. But the same atmospheric turbulence that corrupts astronomical imaging also badly degrades link stability and transmission rates. HartSCI’s AO technology offers the solution. By coupling our ClearStar AO™ system, in a version tailored to the 1530 – 1625 nm C and L bands, to our Fiber Feed Unit, we offer a complete package designed to fit seamlessly between the collecting/transmitting telescope and the optical modem.
Click on the movie to see (and hear!) data collected with HartSCI’s ClearStar AO™ system showing how the light coupled into the optical fiber of a laser communications receiver fluctuates - until the AO system is turned on.