Laser Guide Star (LGS) reference sources, articially generated at an altitude of 90 km at the atmospheric sodiumlayer, are mandatory to ensure large sky coverage of astronomical Adaptive Optics (AO) systems developed for8m and Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) class telescopes. As a result of the projection eect of an object locatedat a nite distance from the telescope, the AO wavefront sensor (WFS) perceives the LGS as elongated. Thiselongation is a few arcseconds for the 8m class telescopes and can be more than 10 arcseconds for the ELTs. Thiscan pose several challenges when using a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (SHS) such as truncation eects,the requirement for large detectors, and/or the requirement for detectors with geometry that corresponds to thesource shape. In this work, we report the results of numerical simulations focused on the pyramid wavefrontsensor (PWFS) sensitivity when used with a LGS, in this case, a 2D extended object. In addition, the closed-loopperformance of both PWFS and SHS are estimated.

Non Common Path Aberrations (NCPA) are a usual problem encountered when using an Adaptive Optics System (AO)to produce corrected images in an astronomical instrument. The usual way to correct for such NCPA is to introduce anoffset in the WaveFront Sensor (WFS) signals that corresponds to the aberration to correct. In such a way, when the AOloop is closed, the Deformable Mirror (DM) will converge to the shape required to null the NCPA. The method assumesthat the WFS operation is linear and completely described by some pre-calibrated interaction matrix. This is not the casefor some frequently used wavefront sensors like the Pyramid sensor or a quad-cell Shack-Hartmann sensor. Here wepresent a method to work in closed loop with a Pyramid Wavefront Sensor (PWS), or more generally a non linear WFS,while introducing a static offset on the DM. The DM shape is kept constant even if the AO residuals change over timebecause of variations of seeing, wind speed and so on. Results from numerical simulation and first on sky data from LBTFLAO system and LUCI2 facility instrument are presented.

The Extreme Adaptive Optics is one of the new frontiers for astronomical AO and LBT is hosting one of the few XAO systems available on 8m class telescopes. With the 4Runner, a fast visible camera, we measured the AO performances at visible wavelengths. We were able to correct up to 500 modes at 1kHz of framerate, reaching Strehl ratios of about 40% at 630nm of wavelength. We will show the results obtained in daytime with the calibration source and on-sky using natural guidestars. These performances have been obtained at the LBTI-DX focus, one of the 4 LBT focal stations equipped with a SCAO system. All these 4 systems will be upgraded in the framework of the SOUL project. The wavefront sensor detectors will be substituted with low readout noise ones, the adaptive secondary firmware and the AO control both improved. We will briefly describe here SOUL and its performances as estimated via numerical simulations.

The MAORY adaptive optics module is part of the first light instrumentation suite for the E-ELT. The MAORY project phase B is going to start soon. This paper contains a system-level overview of the current instrument design.