Michelson wide-field stellar interferometry: principles and experimental verification.
A new interferometric technique for Michelson wide-field interferometry is presented that consists of a Michelson pupil-plane combination scheme in which a wide field of view can be achieved in one shot. This technique uses a stair-shaped mirror in the intermediate image plane of each telescope in the array, allowing for simultaneous correction of the differential delay for the on-axis and off-axis image positions. Experimental results in a laboratory setup show that it is possible to recover the fringes of on-axis and off-axis stars with an angular separation of 1 arc min simultaneously and with a similar contrast. This new technique represents a considerable extension of the field of view of an interferometer without the need for extra observation time.
Montilla
I
I
Imaging Science and Technology Department, Optics Research Group, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5046, NL-2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands. montilla@optica.tn.tudelft.nl
Pereira
S F
SF
Braat
J J M
JJ