MagAO-X: project status and first laboratory results

Males, Jared R.; Close, Laird M.; Millera, Kelsey; Schatz, Lauren; Doelman, David; Lumbresa, Jennifer; Snik, Frans; Rodacka, Alex; Knight, Justin; Van Gorkom, Kyle; Long, Joseph D.; Hedglen, Alex; Kautz, Maggie; Jovanovic, Nemanja; Morzinski, Katie; Guyon, Olivier; Douglas, Ewan; Follette, Katherine B.; Lozi, Julien; Bohlman, Chris; Durney, Olivier; Gasho, Victor; Hinz, Phil; Ireland, Michael; Jean, Madison; Keller, Christoph; Kenworthy, Matt; Mazin, Ben; Noenickx, Jamison; Alfred, Dan; Perez, Kevin; Sanchez, Anna; Sauve, Corwynn; Weinberger, Alycia; Conrad, Al; Close, LM; Schreiber, L; Schmidt, D
2018
ADAPTIVE OPTICS SYSTEMS VI
DOI
10.1117/12.2312992
MagAO-X is an entirely new extreme adaptive optics system for the Magellan Clay 6.5 m telescope, funded by the NSF MRI program starting in Sep 2016. The key science goal of MagAO-X is high-contrast imaging of accreting protoplanets at H alpha. With 2040 actuators operating at up to 3630 Hz, MagAO-X will deliver high Strehls (> 70%), high resolution (19 mas), and high contrast (< 1 x 10(-4)) at H alpha (656 nm). We present an overview of the MagAO-X system, review the system design, and discuss the current project status.