The description is given for the speckle interferometer of the BTA 6-m telescope of the SAO RAS based on a new detector with an electron multiplication CCD. The main components of the instrument are microscope objectives, interference filters and atmospheric dispersion correction prisms. The PhotonMAX-512B CCD camera using a back-illuminated CCD97 allows up to 20 speckle images (with 512×512 pix resolution) per second storage on the hard drive. Due to high quantum efficiency (93% in the maximum at 550 nm), and high transmission of its optical elements, the new camera can be used for diffraction-limited (0.02′′) image reconstruction of 15m stars under good seeing conditions. The main advantages of the new system over the previous generation BTA speckle interferometer are examined.
@article{arxiv.0909.1119,
title = {The EMCCD-Based Speckle Interferometer of the BTA 6-m Telescope: Description and First Results},
author = {A. F. Maksimov and Yu. Yu. Balega and V. V. Dyachenko and E. V. Malogolovets and D. A. Rastegaev and E. A. Semernikov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0909.1119},
year = {2010}
}