| Name: Gurwinder Singh |
| Affiliation: Indian Institute of Astrophysics |
| Conference ID: ASI2026_183 |
| Title: An All-Sky Natural Guide Star Catalog for Adaptive Optics Using Gaia DR3 |
| Abstract Type: Poster |
| Abstract Category: Stars, Interstellar Medium, and Astrochemistry in Milky Way |
| Author(s) and Co-Author(s) with Affiliation: Gurwinder Singh(Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore - 560034, India), Arun Surya(Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore - 560034, India), Ravinder K Banyal(Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore - 560034, India) |
| Abstract: Adaptive Optics (AO) is a key enabling technology for ground-based astronomical telescopes, mitigating the effects of Earth’s atmospheric turbulence and enabling near–diffraction-limited imaging of celestial sources. For efficient AO performance, a suitably bright natural guide star of known magnitude in a specific wavelength band must be available close to the science target, within the isoplanatic patch. Therefore, knowledge of guide star availability across different photometric bands is essential for assessing sky coverage and AO feasibility, particularly for present and upcoming large optical telescopes such as the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), and Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), which will require guide stars with different magnitude limits for high-order correction and tip–tilt sensing. At present, no complete all-sky guide star catalog exists that is specifically optimized for AO applications in the visible and near-infrared bands (R, J, H, and K). In this work, we present the development of an all-sky natural guide star catalog based on Gaia DR3 data. Broad-band Gaia G-band magnitudes are transformed into standard photometric bands using empirically derived photometric relations. The resulting magnitudes are validated across 15 representative test fields distributed across the sky by comparison with external datasets from Pan-STARRS in the visible and 2MASS in the near-infrared bands. The catalog includes stars down to R ≈ 20 mag, suitable for wavefront sensing, and is curated by excluding extended sources, as well as binary and variable stars that can compromise wavefront stability. |
