Noriaki MIURA^*, Takashi KOBAYASHI, Shinnosuke SAKUMA, Susumu KUWAMURA, Naoshi BABA¹, Yoichirou HANAOKA², Satoru UENO³ and Reizaburou KITAI³

Department of Computer Sciences, Kitami Institute of Technology, 165 Koen-cho, Kitami, Hokkaido 090-8507, Japan
¹Department of Applied Physics, Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan
²National Astronomical Observatory, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
³Hida Observatory, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kamitakara, Takayama, Gifu 506-1314, Japan

(Received March 27, 2006; Accepted June 2, 2006)

An adaptive optics (AO) system for solar observations at the Hida Observatory is described, which is composed of commercially available low-cost devices and fully controlled with software in standard personal computers. This AO system operates at a frame rate of more than 250 Hz by virtue of the image processing procedures used. From laboratory experiments, it was confirmed that this AO system was useful for the temporal wavefront-variation of less than 64 Hz. During solar observations at the Hida Observatory the AO system worked well, except for a few cases.

Key words: adaptive optics, solar observation

^*E-mail address: miura@cs.kitami-it.ac.jp