Rotational Shear Interferometry for Astronomical Imaging

摘要

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.