Get Better Resolution by Throwing Away Light: Non-Redundant Masking in Optical Systems
Abstract
Astronomers strive for clearer images with finer detail, better resolution. Particularly with the last decade's increasing interest in exoplanets, the burden lies on the instruments to provide the eye into the backyard of other planetary systems. Non-redundant Masking provides over two-fold better resolution than traditional imaging, acting as a multi-baseline intereferometer instead of a circular aperture. Analyzing intereferometric data is achieved through the science of Fraunhoffer diffraction (optics) and Fourier transforms. Preliminary analysis of near-IR data from the Project 1640 Integral Field Spectrograph (Hinkley et al. 2009) on the Palomar Hale yields a directly detected companion in a known spectroscopic binary. Additionally, laboratory optics of faint companions to be imaged on AMNH's NRM testbed with a mask designed for the JWST FGS Tunable Filter Imager were developed. A promising two-pinhole method of light attenuation, where no additional polarization or scattering is introduced, was modeled theoretically and implemented in hardware.
This research was funded by the NSF REU program at the American Museum of Natural History summer 2010.- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #218
- Pub Date:
- May 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AAS...21833109G