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Interferometry at Kitt Peak (1Jun93)
(from KPNO, NOAO Newsletter No. 34, 1 June 1993)

FLUOR (Fiber Linked Unit for Optical Recombination) is a "traveling"
interferometry laboratory, which employs single mode optical fibers to connect
existing telescopes for interferometric operation. It is an R&D project
initiated at the Observatory of Meudon and implemented initially at Kitt Peak
in a collaborative effort. During a successful shakedown at the McMath,
interference fringes at 2.2 um were obtained on bright stars with the two
auxiliary telescopes, and the visibility calibration scheme was verified.

We are now moving FLUOR to the ground floor of the old 0.4-m telescope.
Visitors to the mountain will notice a 30-m appendage on the 0.4-m building;
this is an above-ground tunnel which will house the optical delay line that
compensates for path differences through the two telescopes. This summer, we
will carry out tests of interferometric combination of the 0.9-m and 0.4-m
telescopes. If everything goes well, the 50-m baseline will enable us to fully
resolve sources larger than 0.009 arcsec. At this stage of development the
technique is limited to relatively bright sources, and we will be attempting to
obtain precision angular diameters for a variety of evolved stars.

Details of the project through the McMath phase have been published. Please
contact ridgway@noao.edu for reprints and/or a bibliography.

Steve Ridgway, Vincent Coude du Foresto,
Max Boccas

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