NESSI and 'Alopeke: two new dual-channel speckle imaging instruments

NESSI and `Alopeke are two speckle imaging instruments for community use at the WIYN and Gemini-North telescopes. The two instruments were built at NASA ARC and include the capability for wide-field and traditional CCD imaging. Speckle interferometry utilizes extremely short exposures to produce interferograms from the turbulent atmosphere that are reconstructed into a diffraction-limited image, effectively giving space-based resolution from the ground. A primary role of these instruments is exoplanet validation for the Kepler, K2, TESS, and many RV programs. Contrast ratios of 6 or more magnitudes are easily obtained. The instrument uses two EMCCD cameras and two filter wheels to provide simultaneous dual-color observations in either narrowband or SDSS broadband filters to characterize detected companions. High resolution imaging enables the identification of blended binaries that contaminate many exoplanet detections, leading to incorrectly measured radii.