PERFORMANCE OF THE CANADA-FRANCE-HAWAII TELESCOPE ADAPTIVE OPTICS BONNETTE

Extensive results from the commissioning phase of PUEO, the adaptive o ptics instrument adaptor for the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) . an presented and discussed, Analyses of more than 750 images recorde d with a CCD and a near-LR camera on 16 nights in wavelengths from B t o H are used to derive the properties of the compensated wavefront and images in a variety of conditions. The performance characteristics of the system are analyzed and presented in several ways, in terms of de livered Strehl ratios, full width half maxima (FWHM), and quantities d escribing the improvements of both. A qualitative description is given of how the properties of the corrected images result from the structu re function of the compensated phase, Under median seeing conditions, PUEO delivers essentially diffraction-limited images at H and K and im ages with FWHM similar to 0.''1 at J and I, and provides significant g ains down to B, with guide stars as faint as R = 14, During good condi tions, substantial gains were realized with guide stars as faint as R = 17. A simple user interface and software that automatically and cont inuously optimizes the mode gains during observations makes the operat ional efficiency extremely high. A few astronomical examples are brief ly discussed.