Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer: the universal beam combiner

Philip M. Hinz; Tom Connors; Tom McMahon; Andrew Cheng; Chien Y. Peng; William Hoffmann; Donald McCarthy Jr.; Roger Angel

doi:10.1117/12.552337

20 October 2004 Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer: the universal beam combiner

Philip M. Hinz, Tom Connors, Tom McMahon, Andrew Cheng, Chien Y. Peng, William Hoffmann, Donald McCarthy Jr., Roger Angel

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5491, New Frontiers in Stellar Interferometry; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.552337
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2004, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Abstract

The Large Binocular Telescope with its single mount design and adaptive optics integrated into the secondary mirrors, provides a unique platform for mid-infrared interferometry. The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer is designed to take advantage of this platform, specifically for extrasolar planet detection in preparation for the Terrestrial Planet Finder mission. The instrument consists of three components: a general purpose or Universal Beam Combiner (UBC) which preserves the sine condition of the array, a nulling interferometer for the LBT (NIL) to overlap the two beams and sense phase variations, and a nulling-optimized mid-infrared camera (NOMIC) for detection of the final images. Here we focus on the design and tolerancing of the UBC. The components of the system are currently being fabricated and the instrument is planned to be integrated with the LBT in 2006.

Citation Download Citation

Philip M. Hinz, Tom Connors, Tom McMahon, Andrew Cheng, Chien Y. Peng, William Hoffmann, Donald McCarthy Jr., and Roger Angel "Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer: the universal beam combiner", Proc. SPIE 5491, New Frontiers in Stellar Interferometry, (20 October 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.552337

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