Atmospheric characterization with a stereo SCIDAR at the Starfire Optical Range

In a previous paper, the authors presented a benchtop demonstrator for a stereo scintillation detection and ranging (SCIDAR) system at the Air Force Research Lab's Starfire Optical Range. The stereo SCIDAR setup and reconstruction algorithms from this effort accurately characterized the seven-layer atmosphere generated by the atmospheric simulation and adaptive optics laboratory testbed's (ASALT's) multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) bench. This paper details the successful transition of that stereo SCIDAR system to the coudé room of a 1.0m telescope. It shares lessons learned, including additional components and alignment techniques for the on-sky system. Finally, it presents automation efforts of the system to support extended on-sky observations.