  We describe and report first results from PALM-3000, the second-generation
astronomical adaptive optics facility for the 5.1-m Hale telescope at Palomar
Observatory. PALM-3000 has been engineered for high-contrast imaging and
emission spectroscopy of brown dwarfs and large planetary mass bodies at
near-infrared wavelengths around bright stars, but also supports general
natural guide star use to V ~ 17. Using its unique 66 x 66 actuator deformable
mirror, PALM-3000 has thus far demonstrated residual wavefront errors of 141 nm
RMS under 1 arcsecond seeing conditions. PALM-3000 can provide phase
conjugation correction over a 6.4 x 6.4 arcsecond working region at an
observing wavelength of 2.2 microns, or full electric field (amplitude and
phase) correction over approximately one half of this field. With optimized
back-end instrumentation, PALM-3000 is designed to enable as high as 10e-7
contrast at ~1 arc second angular separation, after including post-observation
speckle suppression processing. While optimization of the adaptive optics
system is ongoing, we have already successfully commissioned five back-end
science instruments and begun a major exoplanet characterization survey,
Project 1640, with our partners at American Museum of Natural History and Jet
Propulsion Laboratory.
