Active Control for Michelson Stellar Interferometers

Active alignment for two-beam interferometers

An active control system is described for the automatic alignment of the mirrors in a two-beam interferometer. From an initial unaligned position the active control system determines the degree of misalignment and adjusts the relative mirror positions accordingly. An embodiment of the system is described for a Michelson interferometer in which one of the mirrors is mounted upon three piezoelect...

The Comparison of Environmental Effects on Michelson and Fabry-Perot Interferometers Utilized for the Displacement Measurement

The optical structure of general commercial interferometers, e.g., the Michelson interferometers, is based on a non-common optical path. Such interferometers suffer from environmental effects because of the different phase changes induced in different optical paths and consequently the measurement precision will be significantly influenced by tiny variations of the environmental conditions. Fab...

Visibility retrieval in Michelson wide-field stellar interferometry

Fourier Transforms By White-Light Interferometry: Michelson Stellar Interferometer Fringes

The white-light compensated rotational shear interferometer (coherence interferometer) was developed in an effort to study the spatial frequency content of passively illuminated white-light scenes in real-time and to image sources of astronomical interest at high spatial frequencies through atmospheric turbulence. This work was inspired by Professor Goodman’s studies of the image formation prop...

Michelson wide-field stellar interferometry: principles and experimental verification.

A new interferometric technique for Michelson wide-field interferometry is presented that consists of a Michelson pupil-plane combination scheme in which a wide field of view can be achieved in one shot. This technique uses a stair-shaped mirror in the intermediate image plane of each telescope in the array, allowing for simultaneous correction of the differential delay for the on-axis and off-...