Contract Signed with ESO for Final Design and Costruction of M4 adaptive mirror of E-ELT

Completion of the E-ELT M4 Preliminary design with the full optical and electromechanical characterization of an advanced Demostration Prototype

Completion of the GMT ASM Preliminary design Phase

The VLT DSM, the largest adaptive secondary mirror ever built, is successfully delivered to ESO where it starts optical calibration and testing with Graal and Galacsi

The E-ELT M4 Phase B (preliminary) design is completed and the relevant prototype confirm the co-phasing capability needed by the segmented options.

The first LBT672 adaptive secondary starts operation at the telescope, obtaining from the beginning astonishing results ( > 80% Strehl in H).

ADS and Microgate obtain the Phase-A design contract for the GMT (Giant Magellan Telescope) 7-segments adaptive secondary

Microgate and ADS obtain the manufacturing, assembly, integration and test contract for the VLT Deformable Secondary Mirror.

Microgate, acting as prime contractor with its partners ADS, SAFRAN/SAGEM and INAF, obtains the contract for the preliminary design of the E-ELT M4 Adaptive Unit.

Microgate and ADS obtain the design contract for the VLT Deformable Secondary Mirror. The unit is planned to replace the current "chopping" rigid secondary on UT4.

Microgate, together with ADS, is committed by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) to the development of a feasibility study for an adaptive secondary mirror for the VLT main telescopes (UTs).

a 45 actuators prototype (P45) is completed and successfully tested. The reduced size prototype is identical to the first three innermost actuators rings of the final LBT672 unit.

Microgate and ADS are committed to building two adaptive secondaries for the LBT telescope. The two LBT672 units have 672 actuators each. While maintaining the same concept, the two units implement several improvements. The completely new electronics performs also the Real Time Reconstructor computations.

The MMT336 adaptive secondary is finally moved to the telescope and starts to be used for science.

The MMT336 adaptive secondary is installed on a dedicated testing facility at Steward Observatory Mirror Lab for the optical tests.

The integration of the MMT336 adaptive secondary is successfully completed at Microgate and tested for the dynamic behavior. The unit is moved to Steward Observatory.

36 actuators prototype (P36) completed and successfully tested. The reduced size prototype is identical to the first two innermost actuators rings of the final MMT unit.

The same industrial team is committed to building the first "flying unit", i.e. the adaptive secondary for the MMT 6.5 m conversion. An engineering prototype with 36 actuators is foreseen as a further development step.

The industrial team is committed to building a first 30 actuators prototype, supported by CNR (Italian Research Council) through Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri. Meanwhile, another prototype using a different approach was built by an U.S. company with previous expertise in adaptive optics. The very positive results obtained by the Italian Team led the way towards the development of the first final system.

The adaptive secondary concept proposed by P.Salinari is investigated in detail by the adaptive optics team of Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, with the contribution of Dipartimento di Ingegneria Aerospaziale - Politecnico di Milano, Microgate and Medialario.