Adaptive optics and aperture masking: a comparison

Jayadev K. Rajagopal; Richard Barry; Bruno Lopez; William C. Danchi; John D. Monnier; Peter G. Tuthill; Charles H. Townes

doi:10.1117/12.552170

20 October 2004 Adaptive optics and aperture masking: a comparison

Jayadev K. Rajagopal, Richard Barry, Bruno Lopez, William C. Danchi, John D. Monnier, Peter G. Tuthill, Charles H. Townes

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5491, New Frontiers in Stellar Interferometry; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.552170
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2004, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Abstract

We present a comparative study of aperture-masking on the Keck-I telescope and adaptive optics with the Keck-II telescope. Recent results from an aperture-masking program at the Keck Observatory in the near-infrared amply demonstrate that this method occupies an important niche in achieving diffraction-limited images despite the many advances in adaptive optics technology. Examples of the efficacy of aperture-masking are the images of the persistent dust-producing Wolf-Rayet star WR 104 and the massive young star with IR excess, MWC 349A. Both these objects were resolved, providing fundamental new insights into their nature. Here we present images of these objects made using adaptive optics in the same wavelength band. These provide a unique opportunity for a direct comparison of two important and competing techniques for ground-based high-resolution imaging. From the AO images, we are unable to recover the gross morphology or detail seen in the aperture-masking results. We note that the AO program might have been hindered by less than ideal observing conditions.

Citation Download Citation

Jayadev K. Rajagopal, Richard Barry, Bruno Lopez, William C. Danchi, John D. Monnier, Peter G. Tuthill, and Charles H. Townes "Adaptive optics and aperture masking: a comparison", Proc. SPIE 5491, New Frontiers in Stellar Interferometry, (20 October 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.552170

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