Summary
We describe a concept for a near-infrared (JHK) bulk-optics combiner designed for efficient model-independent imaging of faint sources. Thecombiner is designed to accommodate (through a reconfigurable switchyard) any number of input beams from three to six. The instrument will include its own group-delay fringe tracker in addition to the “science” beam combiner. This will mean that fringe tracking will be possible using baseline “bootstrapping” while science data can be being secured on much longer baselines where the fringe visibility may be very low. We expect that a photon-efficient optical design will allow faint (K ~ 13) science targets to be observed, including AGN. Our proposed instrument will allow the full imaging potential of the VLTI infrastructure to be realised
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer
About this paper
Cite this paper
Buscher, D., Baron, F., Coyne, J., Haniff, C., Young, J. (2007). BOBCAT - A Photon-efficient Multi-way Combiner for the VLTI. In: Richichi, A., Delplancke, F., Paresce, F., Chelli, A. (eds) The Power of Optical/IR Interferometry: Recent Scientific Results and 2nd Generation Instrumentation. Eso Astrophysics Symposia. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74256-2_48
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74256-2_48
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-74253-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-74256-2
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)