Speckle imaging of satellites at the US Air Force Maui Optical Station

Abstract

Results are presented from a series of experiments in which the U.S. Air Force Maui Optical Station's 1.6-m telescope and a bare CCD speckle camera system were used to image satellites at distances of up to 1000 km. A brief overview of the image reconstruction algorithms is presented. The choice of the experiment site and various imaging parameters are described. Power spectra and power spectral signal-to-noise ratio curves that result from imaging several point stars are compared with theory. Reconstructed images of several binary stars are shown as a base-line assessment of our technique. High-quality image reconstructions of an Earth-satellite, the Hubble Space Telescope, are presented. The results confirm that speckle imaging techniques can be used with a bare CCD imaging system to provide a powerful and flexible method for imaging objects of moderate magnitude.