next up previous
Next: Sebastian Wolf , Bruno Up: Session 3: Infrared Interferometry Previous: Thibaut Paumard, Frank Eisenhauer,


T. M. Herbst
INTERFEROMETRY WITH THE LARGE BINOCULAR TELESCOPE

INTERFEROMETRY WITH THE LARGE BINOCULAR TELESCOPE


T. M. Herbst
Max Planck institute for Astronomy


The Large Binocular Telescope will be a unique interferometric facility when it begins dual-beam operation in late 2007. The combination of two, 8.4 meter mirrors in a compact array provides enhanced sensitivity, spatial resolution, and the ability to perform true interferometric imaging. I will give an update on LBT progress and place it in the context of existing and planned interferometers. Two interferometric instruments are planned for the Large Binocular Telescope. A group based at the University of Arizona is building LBTI, a thermal infrared beam combiner. LBTI will initially concentrate on nulling observations of exo-zodiacal dust in candidate stellar systems for the Terrestrial Planet Finder Mission. The instrument is flexible, and will likely later incorporate imaging instruments. A second group, based in Germany and Italy, is building LINC-NIRVANA, a near-infrared, Fizeau-mode beam combiner with multi-conjugated adaptive optics (MCAO). Fizeau interferometry preserves phase information and allows true imagery over a large field of view, limited ultimately by the delivered field of the adaptive optics system. The combination of MCAO and state-of-the-art detector arrays will allow LINC-NIRVANA to deliver the ultimate in sensitivity, field of view, and spatial resolution.


next up previous
Next: Sebastian Wolf , Bruno Up: Session 3: Infrared Interferometry Previous: Thibaut Paumard, Frank Eisenhauer,
LESIA, Observatoire de Paris
2006-03-16