Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 August 2016
A speckle interferometer is described which has been used to measure the separations and position angles of binary star systems. The present instrument uses an image intensifier to enable the enlarged stellar images to be recorded on cine-film. The exposure time is typically 8 msec and the camera can be operated at up to 20 frames per second. The instrument incorporates a means of calibrating the magnitude difference of the binary star systems.
A pair of achromatising lenses have been designed which will correct the radial chromatic dispersion in the speckle patterns and allow exposures to be made in “white” light. A system is under development which uses an image intensifier and a plumbicon television camera to acquire the data and a hard-wired autocorrelator to perform the analysis in real time. With this system the limiting magnitude of the technique should be significantly improved.