AAS 207th Meeting, 8-12 January 2006
Session 82 Ground Based Optical Interferometry
Poster, Tuesday, 9:20am-6:30pm, January 10, 2006, Exhibit Hall

Previous   |   Session 82   |   Next  |   Author Index   |   Block Schedule


[82.12] Effects of Optical Interferometer Mis-calibration on Imaging

R. B. Hindsley (Naval Research Lab)

Optical interferometric imaging data of resolved objects is calibrated by also observing an unresolved star . An unresolved star is chosen for a calibrator because it has fringe visibility approaching unity- in fact a point source with unit visibility would be ideal. Corrections have to be made for the nonvanishing angular diameter of the calibrator star, and errors in the assumed angular diameter will be folded into the visibilities of the resolved object. This in turn affects the image derived from those data; in many cases there will be a loss of contrast and sharpness in the image. By simulating observations that will eventually be made by the Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer (NPOI), we have placed some limits on the acceptable errors.


The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: hindsley@nrl.navy.mil

Previous   |   Session 82   |   Next

Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #4
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.