CHARA Michigan phase-tracker (CHAMP): a preliminary performance report
Abstract
The CHARA Michigan Phase-tracker (CHAMP) is a real-time fringe tracker for the CHARA Array, a six-telescope long baseline optical interferometer on Mount Wilson, California. CHAMP has been optimized for tracking sensitivity at J, H, or K bands and is not meant as a science instrument itself. This ultimately results in maximum sensitivity for all the science beam combiners that benefit from stabilized fringes. CHAMP was designed, built, and tested in the laboratory at the University of Michigan and will be delivered to the CHARA Array in 2008. We present the final design of CHAMP, highlighting some its key characteristics, including a novel post-combination transport and imaging system. We also discuss testing and validation studies and present first closed-loop operation in the laboratory.
Additional Information
© 2008 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). The fringe tracker funding, including financial support for DHB, was provided by the National Science Foundation through grant AST–0352723. We would like to thank Anna Moore and Michael Ireland for their initial design of the lens triplet. We would also like to thank Michael Ireland for consulting on many other aspects of CHAMP, especially the inspiration for the image slicer design. We acknowledge Scott Webster at the University of Michigan who single-handedly machined every custom part of CHAMP (all 126 parts and counting).Attached Files
Published - 701319.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 86708
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20180530-104600699
- NSF
- AST-0352723
- Created
-
2018-05-30Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-15Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)
- Series Name
- Proceedings of SPIE
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 7013