Related papers: Establishing Visible Interferometer System Respons…
A method of absolute calibration for large aperture optical systems is presented, using the example of the Pierre Auger Observatory fluorescence detectors. A 2.5 m diameter light source illuminated by an ultra--violet light emitting diode…
One of the biggest challenges associated with a nulling interferometer-based approach to detecting extra-solar Earth-like planets comes from the extremely stringent requirements of pathlength, polarization and amplitude matching in the…
Visibility estimators and their performance are presented for use with the Palomar Testbed Interferometer (PTI). One operational mode of PTI is single-baseline visibility measurement using pathlength modulation with synchronous readout by a…
The development of sensitive large format imaging arrays for the infrared promises to provide revolutionary capabilities for space astronomy. For example, the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on SIRTF will use four 256 x 256 arrays to provide…
Astronomers usually need the highest angular resolution possible, but the blurring effect of diffraction imposes a fundamental limit on the image quality from any single telescope. Interferometry allows light collected at widely-separated…
In a previous publication (Richichi & Percheron 2005) we described a program of observations of candidate calibrator stars at the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), and presented the main results from a statistical point of…
In this paper, we review the various ways in which an infrared stellar interferometer can be used to perform direct detection of extrasolar planetary systems. We first review the techniques based on classical stellar interferometry, where…
We have used a precision calibrated photodiode as the fundamental metrology reference in order to determine the relative throughput of the PanSTARRS telescope and the Gigapixel imager, from 400 nm to 1050 nm. Our technique uses a tunable…
In radio astronomy, accurate calibration is of crucial importance for the new generation of radio interferometers. More specifically, because of the potential presence of outliers which affect the measured data, robustness needs to be…
Uncertainties of refractive and group index in dispersion measurement by spectrally resolved white light interferometry are deeply analyzed. First, the contribution to uncertainty of the different parameters affecting both indices is…
The Palomar Testbed Interferometer (PTI) archive of observations between 1998 and 2005 is examined for objects appropriate for calibration of optical long-baseline interferometer observations - stars that are predictably point-like and…
Based on diffraction theory and the propagation of the light, Fourier optics is a powerful tool allowing the estimation of a visible-range imaging system to transfer the spatial frequency components of an object. The analyses of the imaging…
This tutorial gives a general introduction to optical and infrared interferometry, specifically addressing two questions: `Can I use VLTI to observe my favourite object?' and `What will it tell me?' The observables measured by an…
Preparing appropriate images for camera calibration is crucial to obtain accurate results. In this paper, new suggestions for preparing such data to alleviate the adverse effect of radial distortion for a calibration procedure using…
The direct detection and imaging of exoplanets requires the use of high-contrast adaptive optics (AO). In these systems quasi-static aberrations need to be highly corrected and calibrated. In order to achieve this, the pupil-modulated…
The following exercises aim to learn the link between the object intensity distribution and the corresponding visibility curves of a long-baseline ptical interferometer. They are also intended to show the additional constraints on…
We analyze an intensity interferometry measurement carried out with two point-like detectors facing a distant source (e.g., a star) that may be partially occluded by an absorptive object (e.g., a planet). Such a measurement, based on the…
This chapter discusses the use and possibilities of optical and infrared interferometry to study star formation. The chapter starts with a brief overview of the star formation process and highlights the open questions from an observational…
Baseline calibration of a stellar interferometer is a prerequisite to data reduction of astrometric operations. This technique of astrometry is triangulation of star positions. Since angles are deduced from the baseline and delay side of…
We present computer simulations of interferometric imaging with the VLT interferometer and the AMBER instrument. These simulations include both the astrophysical modelling of a stellar object by radiative transfer calculations and the…