Related papers: Contrast Enhancement of Binary Star System Using a…
The EXoplanetary Circumstellar Environments and Disk Explorer (EXCEDE) science mission concept uses a visible-wavelength Phase-Induced Amplitude Apodization (PIAA) coronagraph to enable high-contrast imaging of circumstellar debris systems…
The vector vortex is a coronagraphic imaging mode of the recently commissioned Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme-Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) platform on the 8-m Subaru Telescope. This multi-purpose high-contrast visible and near-infrared (R- to…
The Phase-Induced Amplitude Apodization (PIAA) coronagraph is a high performance coronagraph concept able to work at small angular separation with little loss in throughput. We present results obtained with a laboratory PIAA system…
With a clear circular aperture, the vortex coronagraph perfectly cancels an on-axis point source and offers a 0.9 or 1.75 lambda/D inner working angle for topological charge 2 or 4, respectively. Current and near-future large telescopes are…
We present methods for optimizing pupil and focal plane optical elements that improve the performance of vortex coronagraphs on telescopes with obstructed or segmented apertures. Phase-only and complex masks are designed for the entrance…
Described here is the design and commissioning of a coronagraph facility for the 4.2 metre William Herschel Telescope (WHT) and its Nasmyth Adaptive Optics system for Multi-purpose Instrumentation (NAOMI). The use of the NAOMI system gives…
High-contrast imaging provided by a coronagraph is critical for the direction imaging of the Earth-like planet orbiting its bright parent star. A major limitation for such direct imaging is the speckle noise that is induced from the…
I review the method of Doppler tomography which translates binary-star line profiles taken at a series of orbital phases into a distribution of emission over the binary. I begin with a discussion of the basic principles behind Doppler…
Observations of low-mass companions for which the dynamical masses are well constrained help to improve the calibration of evolutionary models. Such observations thereby provide more confidence in the estimation of the mass of a companion…
CONTEXT: The four-quadrant phase mask stellar coronagraph, introduced by D. Rouan et al., is capable of achieving very high dynamical range imaging and was studied in the context of the direct detection of extra-solar planets. Achromatic…
A set of pupil apodization functions for use with a vortex coronagraph on telescopes with obscured apertures is presented. We show analytically that pupil amplitudes given by real-valued Zernike polynomials offer ideal on-axis starlight…
The adaptive optics system at the 3.6 m AEOS telescope was used to measure the astrometry and differential magnitude in I-band of 56 binary stars in 2002. The astrometric measurements will be of use for future orbital determination, and the…
We investigate directly imaging exoplanets around eclipsing binaries, using the eclipse as a natural tool for dimming the binary and thus increasing the planet to star brightness contrast. At eclipse, the binary becomes point-like, making…
We have attempted to establish an observational evidence for presence of distant companions which may have acquired and/or absorbed the angular momentum during evolution of multiple systems thus facilitating or enabling formation of contact…
A fine analysis of spectral line widths and Doppler shifts employing Fourier transform and cross-correlation techniques has been applied to Chandra HETG spectra obtained in 1999 October of the rapidly rotating young star AB Doradus in order…
The second-generation instrument SPHERE, dedicated to high-contrast imaging, will soon be in operation on the European Very Large Telescope. Such an instrument relies on an extreme adaptive optics system coupled with a coronagraph that…
Direct imaging of extra-solar planets is now a reality, especially with the deployment and commissioning of the first generation of specialized ground-based instruments such as the Gemini Planet Imager and SPHERE. These systems will allow…
Recent adaptive optics systems in astronomy achieve high-angular resolution. With the extreme stability of the images, detection at very low fluxes can be reached using a coronograph at the diffraction limit of the telescopes. This paper is…
The Chandra X-ray observatory monitored the single cool star, AB Doradus, continuously for a period lasting 88ksec (1.98 Prot) in 2002 December with the LETG/HRC-S. The X-ray lightcurve shows significant rotational modulation. It can be…
Quasi-static aberrations in coronagraphic systems are the ultimate limitation to the capabilities of exoplanet imagers both ground-based and space-based. These aberrations - which can be due to various causes such as optics alignment or…