High-Resolution Astronomical Imaging By Triple Correlation Processing

G. Weigelt

doi:10.1117/12.942072

29 January 1988 High-Resolution Astronomical Imaging By Triple Correlation Processing

G. Weigelt

Proceedings Volume 0828, Digital Image Recovery and Synthesis; (1988) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.942072
Event: 31st Annual Technical Symposium on Optical and Optoelectronic Applied Sciences and Engineering, 1987, San Diego, CA, United States

Abstract

The atmosphere of the earth restricts the resolution of conventional astrophotography to about 1 arcsec. Much higher resolution can be obtained by using speckle methods. The speckle masking method (triple correlation method) yields images of general astronomical objects with diffraction-limited resolution, for example, 0.03 arcsec resolution for a 3.6-m telescope. True images are obtained since speckle masking reconstructs both the modulus and the phase of the object Fourier transform. Therefore, speckle masking is a solution of the phase problem in speckle interferometry. The limiting magnitude of speckle masking is about 20m. Speckle spectroscopy is a speckle method that yields objective prism spectra with diffraction-limited angular resolution. Finally, speckle masking can recon-struct high-resolution images from optical long-baseline interferograms. A 1-km telescope array on the earth would yield images with 10 arcsec resolution. With a 40-km array in space a fantastic resolution of 10^-6 arcsec can be achieved at λ-200 nm. We show speckle masking observations of NGC 3603 and Eta Carinae and computer simulations of optical aperture synthesis.

Citation Download Citation

G. Weigelt "High-Resolution Astronomical Imaging By Triple Correlation Processing", Proc. SPIE 0828, Digital Image Recovery and Synthesis, (29 January 1988); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.942072

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