IOTA interferometer project: plans, engineering, and laboratory results

Robert D. Reasenberg

doi:10.1117/12.19287

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1 August 1990 IOTA interferometer project: plans, engineering, and laboratory results

Robert D. Reasenberg

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Proceedings Volume 1237, Amplitude and Intensity Spatial Interferometry; (1990) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.19287
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation for the 21st Century, 1990, Tucson, AZ, United States

Abstract

The Infrared-Optical Telescope Array (IOTA) is being developed by a consortium comprising Harvard University, the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the University of Wyoming. The instrument is intended to generate high-resolution images of astronomical objects by bringing together beams from widely separated telescopes and combining them at a central location. The initial configuration will consist of two 0.45 m telescopes thay may range along an L-shaped track that will permit spacings in the 5 to 38 m range, at the Smithsonian's Fred L. Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins. Initial tests of this configuration are expected to be conducted during the summer of 1991 and to yield both valuable engineering data and the first scientific results including diameters of stars and artificial earth satellites and a measure of the extent of some circumstellar shells. The engineering data will be applied to the refinement of IOTA, particularly to the second IOTA configuration, in which a third telescope will be added, making it possible to obtain phase closure information.

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Robert D. Reasenberg "IOTA interferometer project: plans, engineering, and laboratory results", Proc. SPIE 1237, Amplitude and Intensity Spatial Interferometry, (1 August 1990); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.19287

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