Adaptive optics on small astronomical telescope with multi-actuator adaptive lens

Adaptive Optics (AO) is a key technology for ground-based astronomical telescopes, allowing to overcome the limits imposed by atmospheric turbulence and obtain high resolution images. This technique however, has not been developed for small size telescopes, because of its high cost and complexity. We realized an AO system based on a Multi-actuator Adaptive Lens and a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (WFS), allowing for a great compactness and simplification of the optical design. The system was integrated on a 11" telescope and controlled by a consumer-grade laptop allowing to perform Closed-Loop AO correction up to 400 Hz