Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T07:19:06.235Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The USNO Astrometric Optical Interferometer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2017

D.J. Hutter ,
K.J. Johnston  and
D. Mozurkewich
D.J. Hutter
Affiliation:
United States Naval Observatory Washington, DC 20392-5420
K.J. Johnston
Affiliation:
United States Naval Observatory Washington, DC 20392-5420
D. Mozurkewich
Affiliation:
Remote Sensing Division, Naval Research Laboratory Washington, DC 20375

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The U.S. Naval Observatory Astrometric Optical Interferometer (AOI) began operation on Anderson Mesa, near Flagstaff, Arizona, in the autumn of 1994. The AOI incorporates four siderostats that are located in a Y-shaped configuration, and features a full-array laser metrology system to monitor baseline motion. The AOI incorporates state-of-the-art delay lines and a real-time fringe-tracking system. The AOI will have a limiting visual magnitude of 10, under typical observing conditions, and will produce star positions accurate to a few milliarcseconds (mas). With a planned operational lifetime of several decades, this instrument will be capable of maintaining the optical reference frame by improving the proper motions of thousands of the brighter HIPPARCOS stars through repeated observations.

Type
1. Current Advances in Astrometry
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 166: Astronomical and Astrophysical Objectives of Sub-Milliarcsecond Optical Astrometry , 1995 , pp. 23 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1995 

References

Armstrong, J.T. (1994) Progress on the Big Optical Array (BOA), in Amplitude and Intensity Spatial Interferometry II, ed. Breckinridge, J.B., Proc. SPIE, 2200, 62.Google Scholar
Danchi, W.C., Arthur, A., Fulton, R., Peck, M., Sadoulet, B., Sutton, E.C., Townes, C.H., and Weitzmann, R.H. (1986) A High Precision Telescope Pointing System, in Advanced Technology Optical Telescopes III, ed. Barr, L.D., Proc. SPIE , 628, 422.Google Scholar
Elias, N.M. (1994) Baseline Metrology System of the USNO Astrometric Interferometer, in Amplitude and Intensity Spatial Interferometry II, ed. Breckinridge, J.B., Proc SPIE, 2200, 71.Google Scholar
Hummel, C.A., Mozurkewich, D., Elias, N.M., Quirrenbach, A., Buscher, D.F., Armstrong, J.T., Johnston, K.J., Simon, R.S., and Hutter, D.J. (1994) Four Years of Astrometric Measurements with the Mark III Optical Interferometer, Astron. J., 108, 326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mozurkewich, D. (1994) A Hybrid Design for a Six Way Beam Combiner, in Amplitude and Intensity Spatial Interferometry II, ed. Breckinridge, J.B., Proc. SPIE, 2200, 76.Google Scholar
Shao, M., Colavita, M.M., Hines, B.E., Staelin, D.H., Hutter, D.J., Johnston, KJ., Mozurkewich, D., Simon, R.S., Hershey, J.L., Hughes, J.A., and Kaplan, G.H. (1988) The Mark III Stellar Interferometer, Astron. Astrophys., 193, 357.Google Scholar
White, N.M., Millis, R.L., Franz, O.G., Loven, J.M., Hutter, D.J., Johnston, K.J., Armstrong, J.T., and Mozurkewich, D. (1994) Progress Report on the Construction of the Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer at the Lowell Observatory, in Amplitude and Intensity Spatial Interferometry II, ed. Breckinridge, J.B., Proc. SPIE, 2200, 242.Google Scholar