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The Limiting Sensitivity and Visibility Loss in a Small Aperture Amplitude Interferometer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2016

William J. Tango
William J. Tango*
Affiliation:
Astronomy Department, School of Physics, University of Sydney, Australia

Abstract

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We analyze the behaviour of an amplitude interferometer with aperture diameters of the order of r0. A simple optical correlator can be used to measure the source coherence function, and the limiting magnitude is found to depend principally on the optical bandwidth. The basic instrument appears to have a limiting magnitude m = +8, but this can be improved by more elaborate correlators. The effects of atmospheric turbulence on such an interferometer can be substantially reduced by an active optical system which compensates for the wavefront tilts in the incident light, and it appears that the limiting magnitude of the interferometer, when atmospheric effects are taken into account, is around m = 7 - 8.

Type
The Scientific Programme
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 50: High Angular Resolution Stellar Interferometry , January 1979 , pp. 12-1 - 12-10
Copyright
Copyright © 1979

References

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