Authors

Miguel A. Cagigal, Pedro J. Valle, Vidal F. Canales and Manuel P. Cagigal

Affiliations

Dept. de Física Aplicada, Universidad de Cantabria, Los Castros S/N 39005 Santander, Spain

Abstract

In this work we introduce a simple adaptive coronographic mask (ACM) able to change its transmittance properties as a function of the instantaneous atmosphere conditions. The goal of this kind of ACM is to attain a high star light extinction rate even when observing from a ground based telescope. Using a simulation procedure the ACM has been compared to the hard edge mask. Simulation shows that if the area both masks are similar, ACM offers a small Inner Working Angle (IWA). Furthermore, a higher extinction can be attained if this technique is also applied to the Lyot stop. Adaptive mask technique has appeared to be particularly successful for low D/r0 values, what suggest a combination of our technique with that of the Lucking imaging specially when detecting in visible.