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

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[82.02] Precision Imaging with Adaptive Optics Aperture Masking Interferometry

F. Martinache, J. P. Lloyd (Cornell University), P. Tuthill, H. C. Woodruff (University of Sydney), T. ten Brummelaar, N. Turner (CHARA)

Adaptive Optics (AO) enables sensitive diffraction limited imaging from the ground on large telescopes. Much of the promise of AO has yet to be fully realised, due to the difficulties imposed by the complicated, unstable and unknown PSF. At the highest resolutions, (inside the PSF) AO has yet to demonstrate full potential for improvements over speckle techniques. The most precise astronomical speckle imaging observations have resulted from non-redundant pupil masking.

We are developing a technique to solve the problem of PSF characterization in AO imaging by synthesizing the heritage of image reconstruction with sparse pupil sampling from astronomical interferometry with the long coherence times available after AO correction. Masking the output pupil of the AO system with a non-redundant array can provide self-calibrated imaging. Further calibration of the MTF can be provided with AO wavefront sensor telemetry data. With a precision calibrated PSF, reliable, well-posed deconvolution is possible. High SNR data and accurate MTF calibration provided by the combination of non-redundant masking and AO system telemetry, allow super-resolution. AEOS provides a unique capability to explore the dynamic range and imaging precision of this technique at visible wavelengths. The NSF/AFOSR program has funded an instrument to explore these new imaging techniques at AEOS. ZOR/AO (Zero Optical Redundance with Adaptive Optics) is presently under construction, to be deployed at AEOS in 2005.


The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: frantz@astro.cornell.edu

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