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High-contrast imaging data analysis depends on removing residual starlight from the host star to reveal planets and disks. Most observers do this with principal components analysis (i.e. KLIP) using modes computed from the science images themselves. These modes may not be orthogonal to planet and disk signals, leading to over-subtraction. The wavefront sensor data recorded during the observation provide an independent signal with which to predict the instrument point-spread function (PSF). MagAO-X is an extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) system for the 6.5-meter Magellan Clay telescope and a technology pathfinder for ExAO with GMagAO-X on the upcoming Giant Magellan Telescope. MagAO-X is designed to save all sensor information, including kHz-speed wavefront measurements. Our software and compressed data formats were designed to record the millions of training samples required for machine learning with high throughput. The large volume of image and sensor data lets us learn a PSF model incorporating all the information available. This will eventually allow us to probe smaller star-planet separations at greater sensitivities, which will be needed for rocky planet imaging.

MagAO-X is the extreme coronagraphic adaptive optics (AO) instrument for the 6.5-meter Magellan Clay telescope and is currently undergoing a comprehensive batch of upgrades. One innovation that the instrument features is a deformable mirror (DM) dedicated for non-common path aberration correction (NCPC) within the coronagraph arm. We recently upgraded the 97 actuator NCPC DM with a 1000 actuator Boston Micromachines Kilo-DM which serves to (1) correct non-common path aberrations which hamper performance at small inner-working angles, (2) facilitate focal-plane wavefront control algorithms (e.g., electric field conjugation) and (3) enable 10 kHz correction speeds (up from 2 kHz) to assist post-AO, real-time low-order wavefront control. We present details on the characterization and installation of this new DM on MagAO-X as part of our efforts to improve deep contrast performance for imaging circumstellar objects in reflected light. Pre-installation procedures included use of a Twyman-Green interferometer to build an interaction matrix for commanding the DM surface, in closed-loop, to a flat state for seamless integration into the instrument. With this new NCPC DM now installed, we report on-sky results from the MagAO-X observing run in March -- May 2024 for the Focus Diversity Phase Retrieval and implicit Electric Field Conjugation algorithms for quasistatic speckle removal and in-situ Strehl ratio optimization, respectively.

The next generation of extreme adaptive optics (AO) must be calibrated exceptionally well to achieve the desired contrast for ground-based direct imaging exoplanet targets. Current wavefront sensing and control system responses deviate from lab calibration throughout the night due to non linearities in the wavefront sensor (WFS) and signal loss. One cause of these changes is the optical gain (OG) effect, which shows that the difference between actual and reconstructed wavefronts is sensitive to residual wavefront errors from partially corrected turbulence. This work details on-sky measurement of optical gain on MagAO-X, an extreme AO system on the Magellan Clay 6.5m. We ultimately plan on using a method of high-temporal frequency probes on our deformable mirror to track optical gain on the Pyramid WFS. The high-temporal frequency probes, used to create PSF copies at 10-22 lambda /D, are already routinely used by our system for coronagraph centering and post-observation calibration. This method is supported by the OG measurements from the modal response, measured simultaneously by sequenced pokes of each mode. When tracked with DIMM measurements, optical gain calibrations show a clear dependence on Strehl Ratio, and this relationship is discussed. This more accurate method of calibration is a crucial next step in enabling higher fidelity correction and post processing techniques for direct imaging ground based systems.

The high contrast and spatial resolution requirements for directly imaging exoplanets requires effective coordination of wavefront control, coronagraphy, observation techniques, and post-processing algorithms. However, even with this suite of tools, identifying and retrieving exoplanet signals embedded in resolved scattered light regions can be extremely challenging due to the increased noise from scattered light off the circumstellar disk and the potential misinterpretation of the true nature of the detected signal. This issue pertains not only to imaging terrestrial planets in habitable zones within zodiacal and exozodiacal emission but also to young planets embedded in circumstellar, transitional, and debris disks. This is particularly true for H\alpha detection of exoplanets in transitional disks. This work delves into recent H\alpha observations of three transitional disks systems with MagAO-X, an extreme adaptive optics system for the 6.5-meter Magellan Clay telescope. We employed angular differential imaging (ADI) and simultaneous spectral differential imaging (SSDI) in combination with KLIP, a PCA algorithm in post-processing, for optimal starlight suppression and quasi-static noise removal. We discuss the challenges in protoplanet identification with MagAO-X in environments rich with scattered and reflected light from disk structures and explore a potential solution for removing noise contributions from real astronomical objects with current observation and post-processing techniques.

Almost all current and future high-contrast imaging instruments will use a Pyramid wavefront sensor (PWFS) as a primary or secondary wavefront sensor. The main issue with the PWFS is its nonlinear response to large phase aberrations, especially under strong atmospheric turbulence. Most instruments try to increase its linearity range by using dynamic modulation, but this leads to decreased sensitivity, most prominently for low-order modes, and makes it blind to petal-piston modes. In the push toward high-contrast imaging of fainter stars and deeper contrasts, there is a strong interest in using the PWFS in its unmodulated form. Here, we present closed-loop lab results of a nonlinear reconstructor for the unmodulated PWFS of the Magellan Adaptive Optics eXtreme (MagAO-X) system based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs). We show that our nonlinear reconstructor has a dynamic range of >600 nm root-mean-square (RMS), significantly outperforming the linear reconstructor that only has a 50 nm RMS dynamic range. The reconstructor behaves well in closed loop and can obtain >80% Strehl at 875 nm under a large variety of conditions and reaches higher Strehl ratios than the linear reconstructor under all simulated conditions. The CNN reconstructor also achieves the theoretical sensitivity limit of a PWFS, showing that it does not lose its sensitivity in exchange for dynamic range. The current CNN's computational time is 690 microseconds, which enables loop speeds of >1 kHz. On-sky tests are foreseen soon and will be important for pushing future high-contrast imaging instruments toward their limits.

The detection of emission lines associated with accretion processes is a direct method for studying how and where gas giant planets form, how young planets interact with their natal protoplanetary disk and how volatile delivery to their atmosphere takes place. H$\alpha$ ($\lambda=0.656\,\mu$m) is expected to be the strongest accretion line observable from the ground with adaptive optics systems, and is therefore the target of specific high-contrast imaging campaigns. We present MagAO-X and HST data obtained to search for H$\alpha$ emission from the previously detected protoplanet candidate orbiting AS209, identified through ALMA observations. No signal was detected at the location of the candidate, and we provide limits on its accretion. Our data would have detected an H$\alpha$ emission with $F_\mathrm{H\alpha}>2.5\pm0.3 \times10^{-16}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$, a factor 6.5 lower than the HST flux measured for PDS70b (Zhou et al., 2021). The flux limit indicates that if the protoplanet is currently accreting it is likely that local extinction from circumstellar and circumplanetary material strongly attenuates its emission at optical wavelengths. In addition, the data reveal the first image of the jet north of the star as expected from previous detections of forbidden lines. Finally, this work demonstrates that current ground-based observations with extreme adaptive optics systems can be more sensitive than space-based observations, paving the way to the hunt for small planets in reflected light with extremely large telescopes.

Direct imaging of Earth-like planets is one of the main science cases for the next generation of extremely large telescopes. This is very challenging due to the star-planet contrast that must be overcome. Most current high-contrast imaging instruments are limited in sensitivity at small angular separations due to non-common path aberrations (NCPA). The NCPA leak through the coronagraph and create bright speckles that limit the on-sky contrast and therefore also the post-processed contrast. We aim to remove the NCPA by active focal plane wavefront control using a data-driven approach. We developed a new approach to dark hole creation and maintenance that does not require an instrument model. This new approach is called implicit Electric Field Conjugation (iEFC) and it can be empirically calibrated. This makes it robust for complex instruments where optical models might be difficult to realize. Numerical simulations have been used to explore the performance of iEFC for different coronagraphs. The method was validated on the internal source of the Magellan Adaptive Optics eXtreme (MagAO-X) instrument to demonstrate iEFC's performance on a real instrument. Numerical experiments demonstrate that iEFC can achieve deep contrast below $10^{-9}$ with several coronagraphs. The method is easily extended to broadband measurements and the simulations show that a bandwidth up to 40% can be handled without problems. Experiments with MagAO-X showed a contrast gain of a factor 10 in a broadband light and a factor 20 to 200 in narrowband light. A contrast of $5\cdot10^{-8}$ was achieved with the Phase Apodized Pupil Lyot Coronagraph at 7.5 $\lambda/D$. The new iEFC method has been demonstrated to work in numerical and lab experiments. It is a method that can be empirically calibrated and it can achieve deep contrast. This makes it a valuable approach for complex ground-based high-contrast imaging systems.

We report the confirmation of HIP 67506 C, a new stellar companion to HIP 67506 A. We previously reported a candidate signal at 2$\lambda$/D (240~mas) in L$^{\prime}$ in MagAO/Clio imaging using the binary differential imaging technique. Several additional indirect signals showed that the candidate signal merited follow-up: significant astrometric acceleration in Gaia DR3, Hipparcos-Gaia proper motion anomaly, and overluminosity compared to single main sequence stars. We confirmed the companion, HIP 67506 C, at 0.1" with MagAO-X in April, 2022. We characterized HIP 67506 C MagAO-X photometry and astrometry, and estimated spectral type K7-M2; we also re-evaluated HIP 67506 A in light of the close companion. Additionally we show that a previously identified 9" companion, HIP 67506 B, is a much further distant unassociated background star. We also discuss the utility of indirect signposts in identifying small inner working angle candidate companions.

The next generation of giant ground and space telescopes will have the light-collecting power to detect and characterize potentially habitable terrestrial exoplanets using high-contrast imaging for the first time. This will only be achievable if the performance of Giant Segmented Mirror Telescopes (GSMTs) extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) systems are optimized to their full potential. A key component of an ExAO system is the wavefront sensor (WFS), which measures aberrations from atmospheric turbulence. A common choice in current and next-generation instruments is the pyramid wavefront sensor (PWFS). ExAO systems require high spatial and temporal sampling of wavefronts to optimize performance, and as a result, require large detectors for the WFS. We present a closed-loop testbed demonstration of a three-sided pyramid wavefront sensor (3PWFS) as an alternative to the conventional four-sided pyramid wavefront (4PWFS) sensor for GSMT-ExAO applications on the new Comprehensive Adaptive Optics and Coronagraph Test Instrument (CACTI). The 3PWFS is less sensitive to read noise than the 4PWFS because it uses fewer detector pixels. The 3PWFS has further benefits: a high-quality three-sided pyramid optic is easier to manufacture than a four-sided pyramid. We detail the design of the two components of the CACTI system, the adaptive optics simulator and the PWFS testbed that includes both a 3PWFS and 4PWFS. A preliminary experiment was performed on CACTI to study the performance of the 3PWFS to the 4PWFS in varying strengths of turbulence using both the Raw Intensity and Slopes Map signal processing methods. This experiment was repeated for a modulation radius of 1.6 lambda/D and 3.25 lambda/D. We found that the performance of the two wavefront sensors is comparable if modal loop gains are tuned.

We present a status update for MagAO-X, a 2000 actuator, 3.6 kHz adaptive optics and coronagraph system for the Magellan Clay 6.5 m telescope. MagAO-X is optimized for high contrast imaging at visible wavelengths. Our primary science goals are detection and characterization of Solar System-like exoplanets, ranging from very young, still-accreting planets detected at H-alpha, to older temperate planets which will be characterized using reflected starlight. First light was in Dec, 2019, but subsequent commissioning runs were canceled due to COVID-19. In the interim, MagAO-X has served as a lab testbed. Highlights include implementation of several focal plane and low-order wavefront sensing algorithms, development of a new predictive control algorithm, and the addition of an IFU module. MagAO-X also serves as the AO system for the Giant Magellan Telescope High Contrast Adaptive Optics Testbed. We will provide an overview of these projects, and report the results of our commissioning and science run in April, 2022. Finally, we will present the status of a comprehensive upgrade to MagAO-X to enable extreme-contrast characterization of exoplanets in reflected light. These upgrades include a new post-AO 1000-actuator deformable mirror inside the coronagraph, latest generation sCMOS detectors for wavefront sensing, optimized PIAACMC coronagraphs, and computing system upgrades. When these Phase II upgrades are complete we plan to conduct a survey of nearby exoplanets in reflected light.

The search for exoplanets is pushing adaptive optics systems on ground-based telescopes to their limits. Currently, we are limited by two sources of noise: the temporal control error and non-common path aberrations. First, the temporal control error of the AO system leads to a strong residual halo. This halo can be reduced by applying predictive control. We will show and described the performance of predictive control with the 2K BMC DM in MagAO-X. After reducing the temporal control error, we can target non-common path wavefront aberrations. During the past year, we have developed a new model-free focal-plane wavefront control technique that can reach deep contrast (<1e-7 at 5 $\lambda$/D) on MagAO-X. We will describe the performance and discuss the on-sky implementation details and how this will push MagAO-X towards imaging planets in reflected light. The new data-driven predictive controller and the focal plane wavefront controller will be tested on-sky in April 2022.

MagAO-X is an extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) instrument for the Magellan Clay 6.5-meter telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. Its high spatial and temporal resolution can produce data rates of 1 TB/hr or more, including all AO system telemetry and science images. We describe the tools and architecture we use for commanding, telemetry, and science data transmission and storage. The high data volumes require a distributed approach to data processing, and we have developed a pipeline that can scale from a single laptop to dozens of HPC nodes. The same codebase can then be used for both quick-look functionality at the telescope and for post-processing. We present the software and infrastructure we have developed for ExAO data post-processing, and illustrate their use with recently acquired direct-imaging data.

MagAO-X system is a new adaptive optics for the Magellan Clay 6.5m telescope. MagAO-X has been designed to provide extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) performance in the visible. VIS-X is an integral-field spectrograph specifically designed for MagAO-X, and it will cover the optical spectral range (450 - 900 nm) at high-spectral (R=15.000) and high-spatial resolution (7 mas spaxels) over a 0.525 arsecond field of view. VIS-X will be used to observe accreting protoplanets such as PDS70 b and c. End-to-end simulations show that the combination of MagAO-X with VIS-X is 100 times more sensitive to accreting protoplanets than any other instrument to date. VIS-X can resolve the planetary accretion lines, and therefore constrain the accretion process. The instrument is scheduled to have its first light in Fall 2021. We will show the lab measurements to characterize the spectrograph and its post-processing performance.

The development of spaceborne coronagraphic technology is of paramount importance to the detection of habitable exoplanets in visible light. In space, coronagraphs are able to bypass the limitations imposed by the atmosphere to reach deeper contrasts and detect faint companions close to their host star. To effectively test this technology in a flight-like environment, a high-contrast imaging testbed must be designed for operation in a thermal vacuum (TVAC) chamber. A TVAC-compatible high-contrast imaging testbed is undergoing development at the University of Arizona inspired by a previous mission concept: The Coronagraphic Debris and Exoplanet Exploring Payload (CDEEP). The testbed currently operates at visible wavelengths and features a Boston Micromachines Kilo-C DM for wavefront control. Both a vector vortex coronagraph and a knife-edge Lyot coronagraph operating mode are under test. The optics will be mounted to a 1 x 2 meter pneumatically isolated optical bench designed to operate at 10^-8 torr and achieve raw contrasts of 10^-8 or better. The validation of our optical surface quality, alignment procedure, and first light results are presented. We also report on the status of the testbed's integration in the vaccum chamber.

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) design consists of seven circular 8.4-m diameter mirror segments that are separated by large > 30 cm gaps, creating the possibility of fluctuations in optical path differences due to flexure, segment vibrations, wind buffeting, temperature effects, and atmospheric seeing. In order to utilize the full diffraction-limited aperture of the GMT for natural guide star adaptive optics (NGSAO) science, the seven mirror segments must be co-phased to well within a fraction of a wavelength. The current design of the GMT involves seven adaptive secondary mirrors, an off-axis dispersed fringe sensor (part of the AGWS), and a pyramid wavefront sensor (PyWFS; part of the NGWS) to measure and correct the total path length between segment pairs, but these methods have yet to be tested "end-to-end" in a lab environment. We present the design and working prototype of a "GMT High-Contrast Adaptive Optics phasing Testbed" (p-HCAT) which leverages the existing MagAO-X AO instrument to demonstrate segment phase sensing and simultaneous AO-control for GMT NGSAO science. We present the first test results of closed-loop piston control with one GMT segment using MagAO-X's PyWFS and a novel Holographic Dispersed Fringe Sensor (HDFS) with and without simulated atmospheric turbulence. We show that the PyWFS alone was unsuccessful at controlling segment piston with generated ~ 0.6 arcsec and ~ 1.2 arcsec seeing turbulence due to non-linear modal cross-talk and poor pixel sampling of the segment gaps on the PyWFS detector. We report the success of an alternate solution to control piston using the novel HDFS while controlling all other modes with the PyWFS purely as a slope sensor (piston mode removed). This "second channel" WFS method worked well to control piston to within 50 nm RMS and $\pm$ 10 $\mu$m dynamic range under simulated 0.6 arcsec atmospheric seeing conditions.

The next generation of Giant Segmented Mirror Telescopes (GSMT) will have large gaps between the segments either caused by the shadow of the mechanical structure of the secondary mirror (E-ELT and TMT) or intrinsically by design (GMT). These gaps are large enough to fragment the aperture into independent segments that are separated by more than the typical Fried parameter. This creates piston and petals modes that are not well sensed by conventional wavefront sensors such as the Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor or the pyramid wavefront sensor. We propose to use a new optical device, the Holographic Dispersed Fringe Sensor (HDFS), to sense and control these petal/piston modes. The HDFS uses a single pupil-plane hologram to interfere the segments onto different spatial locations in the focal plane. Numerical simulations show that the HDFS is very efficient and that it reaches a differential piston rms smaller than 10 nm for GMT/E-ELT/TMT for guide stars up to 13th J+H band magnitude. The HDFS has also been validated in the lab with MagAO-X and HCAT, the GMT phasing testbed. The lab experiments reached 5 nm rms piston error on the Magellan telescope aperture. The HDFS also reached 50 nm rms of piston error on a segmented GMT-like aperture while the pyramid wavefront sensor was compensating simulated atmosphere under median seeing conditions. The simulations and lab results demonstrate the HDFS as an excellent piston sensor for the GMT. We find that the combination of a pyramid slope sensor with a HDFS piston sensor is a powerful architecture for the GMT.

The direct imaging of potentially habitable Exoplanets is one prime science case for the next generation of high contrast imaging instruments on ground-based extremely large telescopes. To reach this demanding science goal, the instruments are equipped with eXtreme Adaptive Optics (XAO) systems which will control thousands of actuators at a framerate of kilohertz to several kilohertz. Most of the habitable exoplanets are located at small angular separations from their host stars, where the current XAO systems' control laws leave strong residuals.Current AO control strategies like static matrix-based wavefront reconstruction and integrator control suffer from temporal delay error and are sensitive to mis-registration, i.e., to dynamic variations of the control system geometry. We aim to produce control methods that cope with these limitations, provide a significantly improved AO correction and, therefore, reduce the residual flux in the coronagraphic point spread function. We extend previous work in Reinforcement Learning for AO. The improved method, called PO4AO, learns a dynamics model and optimizes a control neural network, called a policy. We introduce the method and study it through numerical simulations of XAO with Pyramid wavefront sensing for the 8-m and 40-m telescope aperture cases. We further implemented PO4AO and carried out experiments in a laboratory environment using MagAO-X at the Steward laboratory. PO4AO provides the desired performance by improving the coronagraphic contrast in numerical simulations by factors 3-5 within the control region of DM and Pyramid WFS, in simulation and in the laboratory. The presented method is also quick to train, i.e., on timescales of typically 5-10 seconds, and the inference time is sufficiently small (< ms) to be used in real-time control for XAO with currently available hardware even for extremely large telescopes.

The Coronagraphic Debris Exoplanet Exploring Payload (CDEEP) is a Small-Sat mission concept for high contrast imaging of circumstellar disks. CDEEP is designed to observe disks in scattered light at visible wavelengths at a raw contrast level of 10^-7 per resolution element (10^-8 with post processing). This exceptional sensitivity will allow the imaging of transport dominated debris disks, quantifying the albedo, composition, and morphology of these low-surface brightness disks. CDEEP combines an off-axis telescope, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) deformable mirror, and a vector vortex coronagraph (VVC). This system will require rigorous testing and characterization in a space environment. We report on the CDEEP mission concept, and the status of the vacuum-compatible CDEEP prototype testbed currently under development at the University of Arizona, including design development and the results of simulations to estimate performance.

The MagAO-X instrument is a new extreme adaptive optics system for high-contrast imaging at visible and near-infrared wavelengths on the Magellan Clay Telescope. A central component of this system is a 2040-actuator microelectromechanical deformable mirror (DM) from Boston Micromachines Corp. that operates at 3.63 kHz for high-order wavefront control (the tweeter). Two additional DMs from ALPAO perform the low-order (the woofer) and non-common-path science-arm wavefront correction (the NCPC DM). Prior to integration with the instrument, we characterized these devices using a Zygo Verifire Interferometer to measure each DM surface. We present the results of the characterization effort here, demonstrating the ability to drive tweeter to a flat of 6.9 nm root mean square (RMS) surface (and 0.56 nm RMS surface within its control bandwidth), the woofer to 2.2 nm RMS surface, and the NCPC DM to 2.1 nm RMS surface over the MagAO-X beam footprint on each device. Using focus-diversity phase retrieval on the MagAO-X science cameras to estimate the internal instrument wavefront error (WFE), we further show that the integrated DMs correct the instrument WFE to 18.7 nm RMS, which, combined with a 11.7% pupil amplitude RMS, produces a Strehl ratio of 0.94 at H$\alpha$.

Over the last decade, the vector-apodizing phase plate (vAPP) coronagraph has been developed from concept to on-sky application in many high-contrast imaging systems on 8-m class telescopes. The vAPP is an geometric-phase patterned coronagraph that is inherently broadband, and its manufacturing is enabled only by direct-write technology for liquid-crystal patterns. The vAPP generates two coronagraphic PSFs that cancel starlight on opposite sides of the point spread function (PSF) and have opposite circular polarization states. The efficiency, that is the amount of light in these PSFs, depends on the retardance offset from half-wave of the liquid-crystal retarder. Using different liquid-crystal recipes to tune the retardance, different vAPPs operate with high efficiencies ($>96\%$) in the visible and thermal infrared (0.55 $\mu$m to 5 $\mu$m). Since 2015, seven vAPPs have been installed in a total of six different instruments, including Magellan/MagAO, Magellan/MagAO-X, Subaru/SCExAO, and LBT/LMIRcam. Using two integral field spectrographs installed on the latter two instruments, these vAPPs can provide low-resolution spectra (R$\sim$30) between 1 $\mu$m and 5 $\mu$m. We review the design process, development, commissioning, on-sky performance, and first scientific results of all commissioned vAPPs. We report on the lessons learned and conclude with perspectives for future developments and applications.

The search for exoplanets is pushing adaptive optics systems on ground-based telescopes to their limits. One of the major limitations at small angular separations, exactly where exoplanets are predicted to be, is the servo-lag of the adaptive optics systems. The servo-lag error can be reduced with predictive control where the control is based on the future state of the atmospheric disturbance. We propose to use a linear data-driven integral predictive controller based on subspace methods that is updated in real time. The new controller only uses the measured wavefront errors and the changes in the deformable mirror commands, which allows for closed-loop operation without requiring pseudo-open loop reconstruction. This enables operation with non-linear wavefront sensors such as the pyramid wavefront sensor. We show that the proposed controller performs near-optimal control in simulations for both stationary and non-stationary disturbances and that we are able to gain several orders of magnitude in raw contrast. The algorithm has been demonstrated in the lab with MagAO-X, where we gain more than two orders of magnitude in contrast.

Precision wavefront control on future segmented-aperture space telescopes presents significant challenges, particularly in the context of high-contrast exoplanet direct imaging. We present a new wavefront control architecture that translates the ground-based artificial guide star concept to space with a laser source aboard a second spacecraft, formation flying within the telescope field-of-view. We describe the motivating problem of mirror segment motion and develop wavefront sensing requirements as a function of guide star magnitude and segment motion power spectrum. Several sample cases with different values for transmitter power, pointing jitter, and wavelength are presented to illustrate the advantages and challenges of having a non-stellar-magnitude noise limited wavefront sensor for space telescopes. These notional designs allow increased control authority, potentially relaxing spacecraft stability requirements by two orders of magnitude, and increasing terrestrial exoplanet discovery space by allowing high-contrast observations of stars of arbitrary brightness.

Here we review the current optical mechanical design of MagAO-X. The project is post-PDR and has finished the design phase. The design presented here is the baseline to which all the optics and mechanics have been fabricated. The optical/mechanical performance of this novel extreme AO design will be presented here for the first time. Some highlights of the design are: 1) a floating, but height stabilized, optical table; 2) a Woofer tweeter (2040 actuator BMC MEMS DM) design where the Woofer can be the current f/16 MagAO ASM or, more likely, fed by the facility f/11 static secondary to an ALPAO DM97 woofer; 3) 22 very compact optical mounts that have a novel locking clamp for additional thermal and vibrational stability; 4) A series of four pairs of super-polished off-axis parabolic (OAP) mirrors with a relatively wide FOV by matched OAP clocking; 5) an advanced very broadband (0.5-1.7micron) ADC design; 6) A Pyramid (PWFS), and post-coronagraphic LOWFS NCP wavefront sensor; 7) a vAPP coronagraph for starlight suppression. Currently all the OAPs have just been delivered, and all the rest of the optics are in the lab. Most of the major mechanical parts are in the lab or instrument, and alignment of the optics has occurred for some of the optics (like the PWFS) and most of the mounts. First light should be in 2019A.

MagAO-X is an entirely new "extreme" adaptive optics system for the Magellan Clay 6.5 m telescope, funded by the NSF MRI program starting in Sep 2016. The key science goal of MagAO-X is high-contrast imaging of accreting protoplanets at H$\alpha$. With 2040 actuators operating at up to 3630 Hz, MagAO-X will deliver high Strehls (>70%), high resolution (19 mas), and high contrast ($< 1\times10^{-4}$) at H$\alpha$ (656 nm). We present an overview of the MagAO-X system, review the system design, and discuss the current project status.

Adaptive optics systems correct atmospheric turbulence in real time. Most adaptive optics systems used routinely correct in the near infrared, at wavelengths greater than 1 micron. MagAO- X is a new extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) instrument that will offer corrections at visible-to- near-IR wavelengths. MagAO-X will achieve Strehl ratios greater than 70% at H-alpha when running the 2040 actuator deformable mirror at 3.6 kHz. A visible pyramid wavefront sensor (PWFS) optimized for sensing at 600-1000 nm wavelengths will provide the high-order wavefront sensing on MagAO- X. We present the optical design and predicted performance of the MagAO-X pyramid wavefront sensor.

The MagAO-X instrument is an upgrade of the Magellan AO system that will introduce extreme adaptive optics capabilities for high-contrast imaging at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. A central component of this system is a 2040-actuator microelectromechanical (MEMS) deformable mirror (DM) from Boston Micromachines Corp. (BMC) that will operate at 3.63 kHz for high-order wavefront control. Two additional DMs from ALPAO will perform low-order and non-common-path science-arm wavefront correction. The accuracy of the wavefront correction is limited by our ability to command these DMs to a desired shape, which requires a careful characterization of each DM surface. We have developed a characterization pipeline that uses a Zygo Verifire Interferometer to measure the surface response and a Karhunen-Loève transform to remove noise from our measurements. We present our progress in the characterization process and the results of our pipeline applied to an ALPAO DM97 and a BMC Kilo-DM, demonstrating the ability to drive the DMs to a flat of $\lesssim$ 2nm and $\lesssim$ 4nm RMS in our beam footprint on the University of Arizona Wavefront Control (UAWFC) testbed.

The Magellan extreme adaptive optics (MagAO-X) instrument is a new extreme adaptive optics (ExAO) system designed for operation in the visible to near-IR which will deliver high contrast-imaging capabilities. The main AO system will be driven by a pyramid wavefront sensor (PyWFS); however, to mitigate the impact of quasi-static and non-common path (NCP) aberrations, focal plane wavefront sensing (FPWFS) in the form of low-order wavefront sensing (LOWFS) and spatial linear dark field control (LDFC) will be employed behind a vector apodizing phase plate (vAPP) coronagraph using rejected starlight at an intermediate focal plane. These techniques will allow for continuous high-contrast imaging performance at the raw contrast level delivered by the vAPP coronagraph 6 x 10^-5. We present simulation results for LOWFS and spatial LDFC with a vAPP coronagraph, as well as laboratory results for both algorithms implemented with a vAPP coronagraph at the University of Arizona Extreme Wavefront Control Lab.

The challenges of high contrast imaging (HCI) for detecting exoplanets for both ground and space applications can be met with extreme adaptive optics (ExAO), a high-order adaptive optics system that performs wavefront sensing (WFS) and correction at high speed. We describe two ExAO optical system designs, one each for ground-based telescopes and space-based missions, and examine them using the angular spectrum Fresnel propagation module within the Physical Optics Propagation in Python (POPPY) package. We present an end-to-end (E2E) simulation of the MagAO-X instrument, an ExAO system capable of delivering 6$\times10^{-5}$ visible-light raw contrast for static, noncommon path aberrations without atmosphere. We present a laser guidestar (LGS) companion spacecraft testbed demonstration, which uses a remote beacon to increase the signal available for WFS and control of the primary aperture segments of a future large space telescope, providing on order of a factor of ten factor improvement for relaxing observatory stability requirements. The LGS E2E simulation provides an easily adjustable model to explore parameters, limits, and trade-offs on testbed design and characterization.