Funding for Adaptive Optics in the United States by the National Science
  Foundation 2006-2009: An Update
  In 2006 I published an article in GeminiFocus that examined funding for
astronomical adaptive optics related technology and instrumentation in the
United States from 1995 through mid-2006. That article concluded that based on
projections then current, AO implementation on public and private telescopes in
the U.S. will soon seriously lag that on the ESO VLT as measured by funds
available. It called for a significant infusion of public funds for AO
development and implementation so that when combined with private funds, the
U.S. astronomical community as a whole would be able to take full advantage of
AO systems on both public and private telescopes. In 2006 I estimated that the
total amount of public (NSF) funds that would be available in 2009 for AO
related non-science activities would be about $6M.
  This article updates the analysis done in my previous article. I show that
for 2009 the funds for AO related non-science activities are about $7M in spite
of the termination of the AODP program. Federal stimulus funds (ARRA) to the
NSF and its grant programs account for a not insignificant part of this $7M. I
make the probably optimistic prediction that in 2010 there will be just over
$6M in NSF funds available for AO related non-science work.
  Thus there has been no significant real increase of public funding for AO
development and implementation since the predictions made in 2006. If private
funding in the US and the level of ESO AO funding is close to the values
predicted in my previous article, then ESO on one observatory, will be
outspending all US AO efforts spread over about a dozen observatories by a
factor of three.
