We present multi-instrument and multi-wavelength observations of the famous LBV star Pistol Star. These observations are part of a larger program on early O stars at different metallicities. The ...Pistol Star has been claimed to be one of the most massive star known, with 250 solar masses. We present preliminary results based on X-shooter spectra, as well as observations performed with the VLTI-AMBER and the VLT-NACO adaptive optics. The X-shooter spectrograph provides simultaneously a spectrum from the UV to the K-band with a resolving power of ˜15000. The preliminary results obtained indicate that Pistol Star has similar properties to eta Car, including shells of matter, but is also a binary.
CHARA/SPICA (Stellar Parameters and Images with a Cophased Array) is currently being developed at Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur. It will be installed at the visible focus of the CHARA Array by the ...end of 2021. It has been designed to perform a large survey of fundamental stellar parameters with, in the possible cases, a detailed imaging of the surface or environment of stars. To reach the required precision and sensitivity, CHARA/SPICA combines a low spectral resolution mode R = 140 in the visible and single-mode fibers fed by the AO stages of CHARA. This setup generates additional needs before the interferometric combination: the compensation of atmospheric refraction and longitudinal dispersion, and the fringe stabilization. In this paper, we present the main features of the 6-telescopes fibered visible beam combiner (SPICA-VIS) together with the first laboratory and on-sky results of the fringe tracker (SPICA-FT). We describe also the new fringe-tracker simulator developed in parallel to SPICA-FT.
Since April 2011, realtime fringe tracking data are recorded simultaneously with data from the VLTI/AMBER interferometric beam combiner. Not only this offers possibilities to post-process AMBER ...reduced data to obtain more accurate interferometric quantities, it also allows to estimate the performance of the fringe tracking a function of the conditions of seeing, coherence time, flux, etc. First we propose to define fringe tracking performance metrics in the AMBER context, in particular as a function of AMBER's integration time. The main idea is to determine the optimal exposure time for AMBER: short exposures are dominated by readout noise and fringes in long exposures are completely smeared out. Then we present this performance metrics correlated with Paranal local ASM (Ambient Site Monitor) measurements, such as seeing, coherence time or wind speed for example. Finally, we also present some preliminary results of attempts to model and predict fringe tracking performances, using Artificial Neural Networks.
Context. The mass loss from massive stars is not understood well. Eta Car is a unique object for studying the massive stellar wind during the LBV phase. It is also an eccentric binary with a period ...of 5.54 yr. The nature of both stars is uncertain, although we know from X-ray studies that there is a wind-wind collision whose properties change with orbital phase. Methods. Observations of Eta Car were carried out with the ESO VLTI and the AMBER instrument between approximately five and seven months before the August 2014 periastron passage. Velocity-resolved aperture-synthesis images were reconstructed from the spectrally dispersed interferograms. Interferometric studies can provide information on the binary orbit, the primary wind, and the wind collision. Results. We present velocity-resolved aperture-synthesis images reconstructed in more than 100 different spectral channels distributed across the Br Gamma 2.166 micrometer emission line. The intensity distribution of the images strongly depends on wavelength. At wavelengths corresponding to radial velocities of approximately -140 to -376 km/s measured relative to line center, the intensity distribution has a fan-shaped structure. At the velocity of -277 km/s, the position angle of the symmetry axis of the fan is ~ 126 degree. The fan-shaped structure extends approximately 8.0 mas (~ 18.8 au) to the southeast and 5.8 mas (~ 13.6 au) to the northwest, measured along the symmetry axis at the 16% intensity contour. The shape of the intensity distributions suggests that the obtained images are the first direct images of the innermost wind-wind collision zone. Therefore, the observations provide velocity-dependent image structures that can be used to test three-dimensional hydrodynamical, radiative transfer models of the massive interacting winds of Eta Car.
In the future, optical stellar interferometers will provide true images thanks to larger number of telescopes and to advanced cophasing subsystems. These conditions are required to have sufficient ...resolution elements (resel) in the image and to provide direct images in the hypertelescope mode. It has already been shown that hypertelescopes provide snapshot images with a significant gain in sensitivity without inducing any loss of the useful field of view for direct imaging applications. This paper aims at studying the properties of the point spread functions of future large arrays using the hypertelescope mode. Numerical simulations have been performed and criteria have been defined to study the image properties. It is shown that the choice of the configuration of the array is a trade-off between the resolution, the halo level and the field of view. A regular pattern of the array of telescopes optimizes the image quality (low halo level and maximum encircled energy in the central peak), but decreases the useful field of view. Moreover, a non-redundant array is less sensitive to the space aliasing effect than a redundant array.
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.375:977-988,2007 Future optical interferometric instrumentation mainly relies on the
availability of an efficient cophasing system: once available, what has so far
postponed ...the relevance of direct imaging with an interferometer will vanish.
This paper focuses on the actual limits of snapshot imaging, inherent to the
use of a sparse aperture: the number of telescopes and the geometry of the
array impose the maximum extent of the field of view and the complexity of the
sources. A second limitation may arise from the beam combination scheme.
Comparing already available solutions, we show that the so called
hypertelescope mode (or densified pupil) is ideal. By adjusting the direct
imaging field of view to the useful field of view offered by the array, the
hypertelescope makes an optimal use of the collected photons. It optimizes
signal to noise ratio, drastically improves the luminosity of images and makes
the interferometer compatible with coronagraphy, without inducing any loss of
useful field of view.
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.376:1047-1053,2007 Long baseline interferometry is now a mature technique in the optical domain.
Current interferometers are however highly limited in number of sub apertures
...and concepts are being developed for future generations of very large optical
arrays and especially with the goal of direct imaging. In this paper, we study
the effects of introducing single-mode fibers in direct imaging optical
interferometers. We show how the flexibility of optical fibers is well adapted
to the pupil densification scheme. We study the effects of the truncation of
the gaussian beams in the imaging process, either in the Fizeau mode or in the
densified pupil mode or in the densified image mode. Finally, in the pupil
densification configuration, we identify an optimum of the diaphragm width.
This optimum maximizes the on-axis irradiance and corresponds to a trade-off
between the loss of transmission and the efficiency of the densification.
Future optical interferometric instrumentation mainly relies on the availability of an efficient cophasing system: once available, what has so far postponed the relevance of direct imaging with an ...interferometer will vanish. This paper focuses on the actual limits of snapshot imaging, inherent to the use of a sparse aperture: the number of telescopes and the geometry of the array impose the maximum extent of the field of view and the complexity of the sources. A second limitation may arise from the beam combination scheme. Comparing already available solutions, we show that the so called hypertelescope mode (or densified pupil) is ideal. By adjusting the direct imaging field of view to the useful field of view offered by the array, the hypertelescope makes an optimal use of the collected photons. It optimizes signal to noise ratio, drastically improves the luminosity of images and makes the interferometer compatible with coronagraphy, without inducing any loss of useful field of view.
We show numerical simulations with monochromatic light in the visible for the LBTI Fizeau imager, including opto-dynamical aberrations due here to adaptive optics (AO) errors and to differential ...piston fluctuations, while other errors have been neglected. The achievable Strehl by the LBTI using two AO is close to the Strehl provided by a single standalone AO system, as long as other differential wavefront errors are mitigated. The LBTI Fizeau imager is primarily limited by the AO performance and by the differential piston/tip-tilt errors. Snapshots retain high-angular resolution and high-contrast imaging information by freezing the fringes against piston errors. Several merit functions have been critically evaluated in order to characterize point spread functions and the modulation transfer functions for high-contrast imaging applications. The LBTI Fizeau mode can provide an image quality suitable for standard science cases (i.e. a Strehl above 70 per cent) by performing both at a time: an AO correction better than approximate to lambda/18RMS for both short and long exposures, and a piston correction better than approximate to lambda/8 RMS for long exposures or simply below the coherence length for short exposures. Such results, which can be applied to any observing wavelength, suggest that AO and piston control at the LBTI would already improve the contrast at near-and mid-infrared wavelengths. Therefore, the LBTI Fizeau imager can be used for high-contrast imaging, providing a high-Strehl regime (by both AO systems), a cophasing mode (by a fringe tracker) and a burst mode (by a fast camera) to record fringed speckles in short exposures.
We show by numerical simulations a fundamental gain in contrast when combining coherently monochromatic light from two adaptive optics (AO) telescopes instead of using a single stand-alone AO ...telescope, assuming efficient control and acquisition systems at high speed. A contrast gain map is defined as the normalized point spread functions (PSFs) ratio of a single Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) aperture over the dual Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI) aperture in Fizeau mode. The global gain averaged across the AO-corrected field of view is improved by a factor of 2 in contrast in long exposures and by a factor of 10 in contrast in short exposures (i.e. in exposures, respectively, longer or shorter than the coherence time). The fringed speckle halo in short exposures contains not only high-angular resolution information, as stated by speckle imaging and speckle interferometry, but also high-contrast imaging information. A high-gain zone is further produced in the valleys of the PSF formed by the dark Airy rings and/or the dark fringes. Earth rotation allows us to exploit various areas in the contrast gain map. A huge-contrast gain in narrow zones can be achieved when both a dark fringe and a dark ring overlap on to an exoplanet. Compared to a single 8-m LBT aperture, the 23-m LBTI Fizeau imager can provide a gain in sensitivity (by a factor of 4), a gain in angular resolution (by a factor of 3) and, as well, a gain in raw contrast (by a factor of 2-1000 varying over the AO-corrected field of view).
