Design considerations for very long baseline fringe-tracking interferometers

M. Mark Colavita

doi:10.1117/12.19284

1 August 1990 Design considerations for very long baseline fringe-tracking interferometers

M. Mark Colavita

Proceedings Volume 1237, Amplitude and Intensity Spatial Interferometry; (1990) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.19284
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation for the 21st Century, 1990, Tucson, AZ, United States

Abstract

Phase measurements made with the Mark III interferometer at Mt. Wilson using baselines up to 32 m show excellent agreement with the standard Kolmogorov theory, and give no evidence of an atmospheric outer scale smaller than 1 km. Thus, very long baseline interferometers (100's of m) can expect rms path length fluctuations to continue to grow nearly linearly with baseline length. With a wideband fringe tracker, atmospheric dispersion will cause significant reductions in fringe visibility for large instantaneous path length errors. A solution to this problem using an active dispersion tracker is presented. In addition, the problem of diffraction of the propagated beam, and the constraints it presents on the choice of beam diameter are discussed.

Citation Download Citation

M. Mark Colavita "Design considerations for very long baseline fringe-tracking interferometers", Proc. SPIE 1237, Amplitude and Intensity Spatial Interferometry, (1 August 1990); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.19284

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