Tip-tilt compensation - Resolution limits for ground-based telescopes using laser guide star adaptive optics

The study presents a comprehensive analysis of tip-tilt compensation systems that use a natural star as a tilt reference, taking into account properties of the atmosphere and of the Galactic stellar populations, and optimizing over the system operating parameters to determine the fundamental limits to the long-exposure resolution. It is shown that for a 10-m telescope on Mauna Kea, if the image of the tilt reference star is uncorrected, about half the sky can be imaged in the V band with long-exposure resolution less than 60 mas, while if the image of the tilt reference star is fully corrected, about half the sky can be imaged in the V band with long-exposure resolution less than 16 mas. V-band images with long-exposure resolution less than 16 mas may be obtained with a 10-m telescope on Mauna Kea for unresolved objects brighter than magnitude 22 that are fully corrected by a laser guide star adaptive optics system.