The speckle polarimeter of the 2.5-m telescope: Design and calibration

The speckle polarimeter is a facility instrument of the 2.5-mSAIMSU telescope that combines the features of a speckle interferometer and a polarimeter. The speckle polarimeter is designed for observations in several visible bands in the following modes: speckle interferometry, polarimetry, speckle polarimetry, and polaroastrometry. In this paper we describe the instrument design and the procedures for determining the angular scale of the camera and the position angle of the camera and the polarimeter. Our measurements of the parameters for the binary star HD 9165 are used as an example to demonstrate the technique of speckle interferometry. For bright objects the accuracy of astrometry is limited by the error of the correction for the distortion caused by the atmospheric dispersion compensator. At zenith distances less than 45? the additional relative measurement error of the separation is 0.7%, while the additional error of the position angle is 0.3°. In the absence of a dispersion compensator the accuracy of astrometry is limited by the uncertainty in the scale and position angle of the camera, which are 0.15% and 0.06°, respectively. We have performed polarimetric measurements of unpolarized stars and polarization standards. The instrumental polarization at the Cassegrain focus in the V band does not exceed 0.01%. The instrumental polarization for the Nasmyth focus varies between 2 and 4% within the visible range; we have constructed its model and give a method for its elimination from the measurements. For stars with an intrinsic polarization of less than 0.2% during observations at the Cassegrain focus the error is determined mainly by the photon and readout noises and can reach 5 × 10^?5.     

The GSU/CHARA program of binary star

A new catalog of speckle interferometric measurements of binary stars has recently been compiled; some statistics of the catalog are presented. Capabilities of the technique of speckle interferometry are demonstrated by new orbital elements of four binary star systems.     

云南天文台新型斑点象探测系统

斑点成象技术能有效地消除地球大气湍流的不良影响,实现地基大型天文望远镜的衍射受限分辨率成象,其所需的原始数据是天文目标及参考星的一系列的短曝光斑点象,它们取自望远镜的终端设备：斑点象探测系统。文中对比该技术对原始数据的要求：介绍了云南天文台研制的新型斑点象探测系统的结构和性能。实际观测结果表明,该系统基本能满足要求。     

由斑点图重建天文图像的方法

首先介绍了斑点图形成机制以及获取方法,并借助计算机模拟了斑点图的生成。然后重点描述斑点图的图像重建方法,包括频率域和空间域重建方法。在频率域重建方法部分依次详细叙述了用于复原模信息的斑点干涉法和用于复原相位信息的由模复原相位法、Knox-Thompson法、斑点掩模法;空间域重建方法部分介绍了典型的LWH法和迭代位移叠加法;另外,盲消卷积法也为斑点图重建提供了新的思路,文章对此方法也做了介绍;特别地,还对国内在该领域的相关工作做了介绍;关于斑点图重建方法在天文学、天体物理学等领域的应用,文章做了有针对性的介绍;最后一章是斑点图图像重建方法的总结。     

The angular diameter of vesta from speckle interferometry

It is shown that the autocorrelation function of a telescope diffraction-limited image is closely approximated by a subtraction of the mean cross correlation of pairs of speckle photographs from the mean autocorrelation of the same set of data. This fact is used to derive the angular diameter of the asteroid Vesta from a series of speckle interferometry data. The resultant apparent angular diameter of 0″.40 ± 0″.04 corresponds to an absolute diameter of 513 ± 51 km.     

Synthetic photometry of speckle interferometric binaries

The synthetic magnitudes and color indices of 46 speckle interferometric stars have been computed depending on their observational spectral energy distributions. The Strömgren vby and Tycho BV passbands have been used to calculate magnitudes of the systems. These data when combined with the magnitude differences of the sub-components from speckle interferometry observations will allow the finding of the parameters of the individual components. These parameters will improve our knowledge about binary system formation and evolution.     

Long-range coherence of the radar field scattered by a rotating mercury

We consider the spatial-temporal properties of the speckle patterns formed when coherent radio waves are scattered by planets. At a speckle diameter of only a few kilometers, the speckle patterns are shown to be displaced in frozen form by distances larger than the Earths diameter due to the spin-orbital motion; i.e., long-range coherence of the radar field takes place. We estimate the coherence losses of the echo signals from Mercury due to the decorrelation of the patterns, which do not exceed or comparable to 10^-4 in order of magnitude for ground-based interferometers. Such small losses imply a high degree of frozenness of the speckle pattern everywhere within the Earth, i.e., on a global scale. This allows us to formulate and solve the unprecedented problems of precision measurements of the instantaneous spin vector components for terrestrial planets by using radars distributed all over the globe.Translated from Astronomicheskii Vestnik, Vol. 38, No. 6, 2004, pp. 513–518.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by Kholin.     

太阳宁静区的高分辨率像复原

本文介绍在怀柔６０ｃｍ多通道太阳望远镜上运用斑点干涉像复原方法所取得的一些初步结果,对用短暴光方法（暴光时间不大于１０毫秒）获得的一系列“冻结”大气后的目标像用斑点干涉像复原方法进行处理,即可获得消除了地球大气影响的目标复原像,斑点掩模法即为斑点干涉像复原方法的一种,我们用它对日面中心的宁静区米粒进行处理,复原出了分率不劣于０．〃５的白光米粒象。     

Speckle interferometry as a method for detecting nearby extrasolar planets

The applicability of the technique of speckle interferometry to the problem of detecting faint planetary and stellar objects around nearby stars is considered. Direct resolution could not be expected to reveal planetary objects, although many faint stellar objects should be detectable with a speckle camera of large dynamic range. The most promising possibilities lie with the approximately 100 nearby visual binaries with separations ?3 arcsec. Continued speckle interferometric observation of these systems could detect perturbations with amplitudes similar to those detectable by an ideal astrometric telescope. A simple scheme for measurement the fringe spacing in the composite spatial frequency power spectrum of the visual binary Eta Orionis indicates that relative separations with accuracies of 0″.002 in each coordinate are attainable. Use as reference stars of faint background stars lying within the isoplanatic patch of a nearby star is also considered.     

斑点干涉术统计结果的信噪比模拟和分析

高分辨统计重建中,随机误差影响着统计结果的信噪比,从而限制了探测目标时所能达到的精度。通过推导给出了单星斑点干涉术统计结果信噪比的数学表达式,并模拟计算了不同视宁度参量r0和不同光子数下斑点图统计功率谱环带上的信噪比,模拟计算结果和理论数学模型吻合较好,最后对一些实测数据进行了处理和分析。     

云南天文台高分辨率斑点成像的新进展

本文报道了对天文目标：双星ＡＤＳ１６８００、ＡＤＳ１６１７３,三星Ｈｕ６６（ＡＤＳ１１３４４）和Ｈｌｄ１７１（ＡＤＳ１６６４８）进行的斑点成像观测及测量结果。介绍了所用的二维光子计数斑点像探测系统的性能,分析了探测系统的光子噪声、附加噪声和其它更复杂的噪声对斑点图的平均功率谱和重谱的影响。在讨论了改正重谱中的噪声偏差项时提出了对重谱基底施加正性约束的算法。测量的结果表明,实现了高精度的微射受限天文     

Determining asteroid spin states using radar speckles

Knowing the shapes and spin states of near-Earth asteroids is essential to understanding their dynamical evolution because of the Yarkovsky and YORP effects. Delay-Doppler radar imaging is the most powerful ground-based technique for imaging near-Earth asteroids and can obtain spatial resolution of <10 m, but frequently produces ambiguous pole direction solutions. A radar echo from an asteroid consists of a pattern of speckles caused by the interference of reflections from different parts of the surface. It is possible to determine an asteroid’s pole direction by tracking the motion of the radar speckle pattern. Speckle tracking can potentially measure the poles of at least several radar targets each year, rapidly increasing the available sample of NEA pole directions. We observed the near-Earth asteroid 2008 EV5 with the Arecibo planetary radar and the Very Long Baseline Array in December 2008. By tracking the speckles moving from the Pie Town to Los Alamos VLBA stations, we have shown that EV5 rotates retrograde. This is the first speckle detection of a near-Earth asteroid.     

A Third Star in the T Tauri System

New speckle holographic images of the T Tauri infrared companion (T Tauri IRC; T Tauri S) reveal it to be a double system with a sky-projected separation of 0&farcs;05, corresponding to a linear distance of 7 AU. The presence of this third star may account for the relative paucity of dust surrounding the IRC.     

上海天文台1．56米望远镜斑点干涉成像实验进展

斑点干涉成像技术是克服大气湍流影响,提高地面大口径望远镜分辨本领的有效途径之一。该技术利用斑点相机拍摄一系列的短曝光像,使得大气湍流冻结,再经过图像处理获得高分辨率重建像。该技术设备简单,易于实现,很快在观测天文学中得到了广泛的应用,尤其是对双星的研究。首先回顾了天文高分辨率重建技术的发展,并介绍了相关研究成果。描述了几种典型的斑点干涉成像处理方法及其优缺点。对图像噪声类型及滤波方法进行了分析。在上海天文台1．56m望远镜上开展了双星斑点干涉观测实验,目标星等4～7mag,双星目标星等差小于2。分别采用斑点干涉术和迭代位移叠加法成功实现了双星目标的高分辨率成像,初步证明了在1．56m望远镜上进行斑点干涉成像实验,能够达到接近望远镜衍射极限的分辨率水平。     

Speckle interferometry of asteroids II. 532 Herculina

Speckle interferometry of 532 Herculina performed on January 17 and 18, 1982, yields triaxial ellipsoid dimensions of (263 ± 14) × (218 ± 12) × (215 ± 12) km, and a north pole for the asteroid within 7° of RA = 7^b47^m and DEC = ?39° (ecliptic coordinates γ = 132° β = ?59°). In addition, a “spot” some 75% brighter than the rest of the asteroid is inferred from both speckle observations and Herculina's lightcurve history. This bright complex, centered at asterocentric latitude ?35°, longitude 145–165°, extends over a diameter of 55° (115 km) of the asteroid's surface. No evidence for a satellite is found from the speckle observations, which leads to an upper limit of 50 km for the diameter of any satellite with an albedo the same as or higher than Herculina.     

Speckle interferometry of magnetic stars with the BTA. I. First results

We present the results of speckle interferometry of a sample of 117 chemically peculiar stars with global magnetic fields. The observations were made in December 2009 at the BTA with a spatial resolution of about 0.02″ in the visual spectral region. Twenty-nine stars were resolved into individual components, 14 of them for the first time (HD965, HD5797, HD8855, HD10783, HD16605, HD21699, HD35502, HD51418, HD64486, HD79158, HD103498, HD108651, HD213918, HD293764). In twelve cases a companion turned out to be 2–4 ^m fainter than the main component—a magnetic star. Young hot Bp stars HD35502 and HD213918 are exceptions, since their companions are fainter by about 1 ^m . In all cases, the linear distance from a star to its companion at the epoch of observations in the picture plane exceeded 10⁹ km. Eighty-eight magnetic CP stars revealed no secondary components within our study. Thus, the fraction of speckle interferometric binaries in our sample amounts to 25%.     

High-resolution infrared imaging of young outflow-sources

We discuss recent results from near-infrared bispectrum speckle interferometry observations of the young outflow sources in the S140 and Mon R2 star forming regions. With spatial resolutions down to 0.075'', our data represent the highest resolution images obtained so far for these objects and exhibit previously unseen complex structures in the immediate vicinity of the young stellar objects. We discuss the relation of these structures to the jets and outflows.     

Speckle interferometry of nearby multiple stars. V. 2002–2006 positional measurements

We present the measurements of positional parameters of 194 nearby binary stars performed at the 6-m BTA telescope of the SAO RAS from 2002 through 2006 applying the speckle interferometric technique. The observations were conducted at central filter wavelengths ranging from 545 to 800 nm using a speckle interferometer equipped with a fast CCD and a three-stage image intensifier. A significant part of the observed systems (80 stars) are pairs, the duality of which was discovered or suspected from the Hipparcos satellite observations. The remaining stars are visual binaries and interferometric binary systems with orbital motion period estimates from several to tens of years, as well as the pairs with slow relative motion of the components, used for gaging the image scales and positional angle calibrations.