Measuring the effective wavelength of CHARA classic

Emily C. Bowsher; Harold A. McAlister; Theo A. ten Brummelaar

doi:10.1117/12.856141

21 July 2010 Measuring the effective wavelength of CHARA classic

Emily C. Bowsher, Harold A. McAlister, Theo A. ten Brummelaar

Proceedings Volume 7734, Optical and Infrared Interferometry II; 77342W (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.856141
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

This paper presents the first empirical measurement of the K¹-band effective wavelength and bandwidth of the CHARA Classic beam combiner on the CHARA Array. Prior to this work, the accepted effective wavelength value used for CHARA Classic data (2.1501μm) came from a model of the system; it was not derived from measurements done on the system directly. We employ two data collection methods for our observations: using the Optical Path Length Equalizer (OPLE) cart to scan through the interference fringes and using the dither mirror to scan through the fringes. The two observational methods yield similar effective wavelength measurements (2.141±0.003μm with the OPLE cart and 2.136±0.002μm with the dither mirror). Both of these results are lower than the previously adopted effective wavelength value, but by less than 0.7%. The bandwidth values measured by the two methods differ from each other by almost 5% (0.334 ± 0.002μm with the OPLE cart and 0.351±0.003μm with the dither mirror). Our results establish the first estimate of the uncertainty in the effective wavelength and bandwidth.

Citation Download Citation

Emily C. Bowsher, Harold A. McAlister, and Theo A. ten Brummelaar "Measuring the effective wavelength of CHARA classic", Proc. SPIE 7734, Optical and Infrared Interferometry II, 77342W (21 July 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.856141

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available