Full bibliography

The Southern Connecticut Stellar Interferometer is an astronomical intensity interferometer consisting of two telescopes. Each is currently equipped with a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) detector, and an ultra-fast timing module correlates counts between both photon detectors. The interferometer has previously demonstrated intensity correlations using the 1-pixel SPADs and extremely narrow band pass filters but was limited in the amount of light that could be collected, and therefore the signal-to-noise ratio that could be achieved. SCSU's recent acquisition of an 8-pixel SPAD detector has allowed for a new possibility: a different wavelength of light could be directed towards each of the 8 pixels of the detector, thus conducting 8 independent intensity interferometry experiments at the same time, if this could be implemented at both telescopes. Using materials and resources available in the Astronomical Instrumentation Laboratory at Southern Connecticut State University, an optical system has been developed to work toward this goal but outfitting the first telescope in this way. The light from the telescope is collimated and directed toward a reflective diffraction grating. This is then re-imaged using a second lens and directed onto the pixels of the photon detector. These optical components have been placed inside an aluminum housing and can be mounted to the telescope for test observations. A status report will be given on the observations so far. If this can be replicated at the other telescope, the signal-to-noise ratio achievable with the instrument could be improved by a factor of 2.8.

Conference Name: American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #234 ADS Bibcode: 2019AAS...23410303D