Exercises on Interferometry (AOT)

1. Single Aperture vs. Interferometric Observations

1.1 — The power of interferometry lies in the fact that when combining multiple telescopes in an array, the
total diameter of the array (the baseline) is many times larger than a single aperture would be, and therefore
the angular resolution of the array is also much larger than that of a single aperture which is useful for radio
astronomy since higher angular resolution means higher detail in the captured images/data and lower SNR

1.2 — A single dish of 300m diameter needs to account for…

1. not being scalable/expandable, so the construction needs to be perfect and cannot be changed
2. complex (and costly) construction (more difficult than multiple small dishes in an array)
3. effects of instrumental fluctuations that cause noise (in an array, the noise in each dish averages
out)
1.3 — With optical interferometry, you have to account for…
1. Spherical aberration affecting the telescopes
2. Seeing affecting the telescopes (delay in arrival times of optical waves)
3. Limited wavelength range for observations in telescope setup and smaller wavelength
4. The fact that it is more difficult to maintain coherence in optical waves than in radio waves
which all make optical interferometry more complicated than radio astronomy

2. Resolution
2.1 — Angular resolution is
given by D- =
§
be resolved) ( lower better for
If the resolution ( the
angular separation at which two sources can is minimal ,
the telescope performs at its best ☒ =

resolving two sources)

'

→ D- a D-

① ut D. baseline 130
→ ✗ = = 16.25
① but p
array

so the factor is 16.25

2.2 — MATISSE can

1) capture at a wider wavelength range (N, M, L bands instead of only N-band) and in more detail
2) reconstruct images of small-scale regions that were found by MIDI and investigate the structures
that were previously not visible with MIDI
3) perform interferometric spectroscopy within the spectroscopic resolution range 30-1000
2.3 —
Use ⊖ = § again ,
with D= 130m :

ʰ¥
L

-0L 3.2 ⊖m=ʰm " ' 5 -0N

¥ -1.55
2.2=1.45 ≈ 2.05
= = = =
-0k -0k Kb
,
, ,
2.2 ,
y

So the
angular resolution increases as we
go from
Lto M when comparing GRAVITY to MATISSE which means that GRAVITY is better
 at
resolving two and MATISSE gets at it as we L to M compared to MATISSE
sources worser
go prom

3. uv-Coverage
3.1 —
We should set circles to the rotation Earth something like this :
see a
of visibility points arranged in
according of ,
so

-
-
-
-
- -
-
,
i '

' - - .
- _
I _
,
,
,
v '

I
I \
•• ,
'
pole y
ii.
,

!
_
. .
.
'
i

.
. -
.
.
. .

3.2 —
If we add more telescopes in between the two telescopes, more data is captured and therefore more visibility
points are measured at each moment, which leads to more u,v-coverage. Additionally, telescopes in the array
that are closer to the pole are rotated with the Earth more slowly than the telescopes in the array that are
further away from the pole, and therefore there will be many different ways in which the u,v points captured
by each telescope rotate, and therefore the u,v-coverage will increase

3.3 —
we get points but at the equator and since the source at declination will it
again a circle
containing hiv , now is zero . we see as

a
straight line :
↑ pole

U -
a - - - - - - -
-
- - - - - - -

3.4 —
At 0° , we have ( same as 3.3 ) At 30° ,
we have ( ellipse : circle projected at 309 At 60° , we have ( ellipse : circle projected out 60°)

" " '

- -
_ -
_
- -
_
-
--
-
- , _
- -
- ,
_ - .
, ,
, ,
.

✓ - - - - - --
- --
V , ✓ .

i
- - - -- - - - - --

y
, ,
,
,
, ,
,
, " i
-
' _
.
-
- - - .
_

n u u

- -
-

3. 1)
-

( circle So the in
-

changes w/ declination angle the

-

in view the
us
Leverage way
_
. - u ,v -
we
.

, ,

, ,

At 90° ellipse )
have V structure the set
visibility points (
straight line , circle

i
,
we , of of ,

"
:
.

-
_
, _

u
3.5 —
More telescopes, since more telescopes in an array would play into the strengths of interferometry and
aperture synthesis since more telescopes lead to higher resolution and more u,v-coverage, whilst this
would be less so the case when placing bigger telescopes. The additional telescopes would be best placed
in the spots where there is not a lot of u,v-coverage such that the total u,v-coverage is increased.

4. Interferometry rocks!!
4.1 — LIGO has two ‘arms’ in an L-shape. The lengths of the arms can change slightly due to a
gravitational wave passing by and highly sensitive instruments can detect this change in length which will
then be denoted as a gravitational wave.

4.2 —
n
-0=38-10-6
"

/ 3600
' °
For M 87 84
_

,
'

, po
≈ 1. -10 rad

- ]
]
£
1 10
7. ◦ b- ' 06m
Douse line
.

At h= 1.3mm D- that
.

we then have = → D= = -10

= = the length of the baseline can resolve it
.ph
.

,, ,
,
, .