Angular Diameters of Stars from the Mark III Optical Interferometer

Abstract

Observations of 85 stars were obtained at wavelengths between 451 and 800 nm with the Mark III Stellar Interferometer on Mount Wilson, near Pasadena, California. Angular diameters were determined by fitting a uniform-disk model to the visibility amplitude versus projected baseline length. Half the angular diameters determined at 800 nm have formal errors smaller than 1%. Limb-darkened angular diameters, effective temperatures, and surface brightnesses were determined for these stars, and relationships between these parameters are presented. Scatter in these relationships is larger than would be expected from the measurement uncertainties. We argue that this scatter is not due to an underestimate of the angular diameter errors; whether it is due to photometric errors or is intrinsic to the relationship is unresolved. The agreement with other observations of the same stars at the same wavelengths is good; the width of the difference distribution is comparable to that estimated from the error bars, but the wings of the distribution are larger than Gaussian. Comparison with infrared measurements is more problematic; in disagreement with models, cooler stars appear systematically smaller in the near-infrared than expected, warmer stars larger.