Combining a stellar interferometer with an astronomical telescope to monitor the phasing that accompanies aperture synthesis

Abstract

This paper discusses a version of a stellar interferometer in which the primary mirrors of the receiver telescopes have different diameters. A small telescope serves as the reference channel for a large-diameter astronomical telescope. The exit apertures of the channels are conjugate in the modified scheme, and the interference pattern is observed over the entire pupil. It is shown that a technique of broadening the dynamic range of recording of the zero path difference in white light by means of moiré in the spectral interference pattern can be used in this case.