Rotational Shear Interferometry for Astronomical Imaging

Abstract

An astronomical imaging instrument was developed which coupled a rotational shear interferometer (RSI) to a telescope with numerical aperture (NA) matching optics. The instrument was designed and constructed. Computer software was written to assist in the NA matching and perform rudimentary wavelength filtering. The completed astronomical imaging instrument was used to image a synthetic binary star created out of light emitting diodes (LEDs) with varying separation and spectrum. Results show that the RSI/telescope combination can image sparse arrays of point sources with small angular separation. Atmospheric turbulence was introduced, and the RSI/telescope instrument was tested for sensitivity to phase distortions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA409524

Entities

People

  • Bristol J. Crawford

Organizations

  • Duke University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Atmospheric Motion
  • Data Processing
  • Detectors
  • Diffraction
  • Distortion
  • Interferograms
  • Interferometers
  • Interferometry
  • Lasers
  • Light Sources
  • Measurement
  • Michelson Interferometers
  • Numerical Aperture
  • Optics
  • Scripting Languages
  • Spearography
  • Visible Spectra

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Image Processing and Computer Vision.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Space Objects