The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer is a NASA-funded nulling and imaging instrument designed to coherently combine the two 8.4-m primary mirrors of the LBT for high-sensitivity, high-contrast, and high-resolution infrared imaging (1.5-13 um). PHASECam is LBTI's near-infrared camera used to measure tip-tilt and phase variations between the two AO-corrected apertures and provide high-angular resolution observations. We report on the status of the system and describe its on-sky performance measured during the first semester of 2014. With a spatial resolution equivalent to that of a 22.8-meter telescope and the light-gathering power of single 11.8-meter mirror, the co-phased LBT can be considered to be a forerunner of the next-generation extremely large telescopes (ELT).
@article{arxiv.1501.04142,
title = {Co-phasing the Large Binocular Telescope: status and performance of LBTI/PHASECam},
author = {D. Defrère and P. Hinz and E. Downey and D. Ashby and V. Bailey and G. Brusa and J. Christou and W. C. Danchi and P. Grenz and J. M. Hill and W. F. Hoffmann and J. Leisenring and J. Lozi and T. McMahon and B. Mennesson and R. Millan-Gabet and M. Montoya and K. Powell and A. Skemer and V. Vaitheeswaran and A. Vaz and C. Veillet},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1501.04142},
year = {2015}
}