Related papers: Probing micro-arcsec astrometry with NACO
The detection and characterisation of extra-solar planets is a major theme driving modern astronomy, with the vast majority of such measurements being achieved by Doppler radial-velocity and transit observations. Another technique -- direct…
The Narrabri intensity interferometer was successfully used until 1974 to observe 32 stars, all brighter than B=+2.5, among which some were found to have an angular diameter as small as 0.41+/-0.03 milli-arc-seconds (mas). The technique was…
Sets of short exposure, guided CCD frames are used to measure the noise added by the atmosphere to differential astrometric observations. Large nightly variations that are correlated with the seeing have been found in the data obtained over…
We present an innovative optical imaging system for measuring parameters of a small particle such as a macromolecule or nanoparticle at the quantum limit of sensitivity. In comparison to the conventional confocal interferometric scattering…
Many planet candidates have been detected by radial velocity variations of the primary star; they are planet candidates, because of the unknown orbit inclination. Detection of the wobble in the two other dimensions, to be measured by…
We demonstrate the ability to measure precise stellar barycentric radial velocities with the dispersed fixed-delay interferometer technique using the Exoplanet Tracker (ET), an instrument primarily designed for precision differential…
We provide a preliminary estimate of the performance of reflex astrometry on Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of nearby stars. In Monte Carlo experiments, we analyze large samples of astrometric data sets with low to moderate…
Chromatic aberration in optical systems arises from the wavelength dependence of a glass's refractive index. Polychromatic rays incident upon an optical surface are refracted at slightly different angles and in traversing an optical system…
The stars orbiting the compact radio source Sgr A* in the Galactic Centre are precision probes of the gravitational field around the closest massive black hole. In addition to adaptive optics assisted astrometry (with NACO / VLT) and…
High precision astrometry aims at source position determination to a very small fraction of the diffraction image size, in high SNR regime. One of the key limitations to such goal is the optical response variation of the telescope over a…
The apparent size of stars is a crucial benchmark for fundamental stellar properties such as effective temperatures, radii and surface gravities. While interferometric measurements of stellar angular diameters are the most direct method to…
We have used the Palomar Testbed Interferometer to perform very high precision differential astrometry on the 0.25 arcsecond separation binary star HD 171779. In 70 minutes of observation we achieve a measurement uncertainty of…
We describe new results from the semiconductor-laser tracking frequency gauge, an instrument that can perform sub-picometer distance measurements and has applications in gravity research and in space-based astronomical instruments proposed…
The Earth's atmospheric turbulence degrades the precision of ground-based astrometry. Here, we discuss these limitations and propose that, with proper treatment of systematics and by leveraging the many epochs available from the Korean…
Rather than using an adaptive optics (AO) system to correct a telescope s entire pupil, it can instead be used to more finely correct a smaller sub-aperture. Indeed, existing AO systems can be used to correct a sub-aperture 1/3 to 1/2 the…
High Definition Astrometry (0.1 - 1.0 micro-arcseconds) will open a new window into neighboring planetary systems. For the first time, the realm of temperate terrestrial worlds will be explored. This includes Earth Analogs, thereby allowing…
Context: With no conclusive detection to date, the search for exomoons, satellites of planets orbiting other stars, remains a formidable challenge. Detecting these objects, compiling a population-level sample and constraining their…
Intensity interferometry permits very long optical baselines and the observation of sub-milliarcsecond structures. Using planned kilometric arrays of air Cherenkov telescopes at short wavelengths, intensity interferometry may increase the…
This work shows details of an evaluation of an observational system comprising a CMOS detector, 60-cm telescope, and filter complement. The system's photometric precision and differential photometric precision, and extinction coefficients…
In this pilot investigation, precise optical positions in the FK5 system are presented for a set of 16 compact extragalactic radio sources, which will be part of the future radio--optical reference frame. The 0.9 m KPNO and CTIO telescopes…