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S. E. Robinson, E. P. Horch, Z. Ninkov (RIT), W. F. van Altena, R. D. Meyer (Yale U.)
Beginning in 1997 and continuing to the present, speckle observations of binary stars and other objects have been obtained using the WIYN 3.5-m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Speckle patterns in most cases have been recorded with a fast-readout CCD camera system. The outstanding median seeing conditions at WIYN (0.8 arcsec) as well as the linear performance of the detection system have allowed for the collection of a unique data set of very high quality. Objects that have been studied in detail include (1) new double stars discovered by Hipparcos, (2) stars of interest for the construction of the Astrometric Grid of the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM), and (3) well-known binaries of importance for the refinement of the main sequence mass-luminosity relation. Scientific objectives and statistics of the observational program are discussed, and some sample observations are presented. Funding for this work has been provided by NSF grant 9731165 in Astronomical Sciences and JPL Subcontract 1201846 from the Preparatory Science Program for the Space Interferometry Mission
The WIYN Observatory is a joint facility of the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, Yale University, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO).