We demonstrate that for data recorded with a solar telescope that uses
adaptive optics and/or post-processing to compensate for many low- and
high-order aberrations, the RMS granulation contrast is directly proportional
to the Strehl ratio calculated from the residual (small-scale) wavefront error.
We demonstrate that the wings of the high-order compensated PSF for SST are
likely to extend to a radius of not more than about 2 arcsec, consistent with
earlier conclusions drawn from straylight compensation of sunspot images. We
report on simultaneous measurements of seeing and solar granulation contrast
averaged over 2 sec time intervals at several wavelengths from 525 nm to 853.6
nm on the red-beam (CRISP beam) and wavelengths from 395 nm to 484 nm on the
blue-beam (CHROMIS beam). These data were recorded with the Swedish 1-m Solar
Telescope (SST) that has been revamped with an 85-electrode adaptive mirror and
a new tip-tilt mirror, both of which were polished to exceptionally high
optical quality. The highest 2-sec average image contrast measured in April
2015 through 0.3-0.9 nm interference filters at 525 nm, 557 nm, 630 nm and
853.5 nm with compensation only for the diffraction limited point spread
function of SST is 11.8%, 11.8%, 10.2% and 7.2% respectively. Similarly, the
highest 2-sec contrast measured at 395 nm, 400 nm and 484 nm in May 2016
through 0.37-1.3 nm filters is 16%, 16% and 12.5% respectively. The granulation
contrast observed with SST compares favorably with that of other telescopes.
Simultaneously with the above wideband red-beam data, we also recorded
narrow-band continuum images with the CRISP imaging spectropolarimeter. We find
that contrasts measured with CRISP are entirely consistent with the
corresponding wide-band contrasts, demonstrating that any additional image
degradation by the CRISP etalons and telecentric optical system is marginal or
even insignificant.Comment: In press in Astronomy & Astrophysic
