EAS Publications Series

Issue		EAS Publications Series Volume 8, 2003 Astronomy with High Contrast Imaging
Page(s)		233 - 243
DOI		10.1051/eas:2003067

Astronomy with High Contrast Imaging
C. Aime and R. Soummer (eds)
EAS Publications Series, Vol. 8, 2003
DOI: 10.1051/eas:2003067

Effects of Quasi-Static Aberrations in Faint Companion Searches

C. Marois¹, R. Doyon¹, D. Nadeau¹, R. Racine¹ and G.A.H. Walker²

¹ Département de physique, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succ. A, Montréal, QC, Canada H3C 3J7
² 1234 Hewlett Place, Victoria, BC, Canada V8S 4P7

Abstract
We present the first results obtained at CFHT with the TRIDENT infrared camera, dedicated to the detection of faint companions close to bright nearby stars. The camera's main feature is the acquisition of three simultaneous images in three wavelengths (simultaneous differential imaging) across the methane absorption bandhead at 1.6 $\mu$ m, that enables a precise subtraction of the primary star PSF while keeping the companion signal. The main limitation is non-common path aberrations between the three optical paths that slightly decorrelate the PSFs. Two types of PSF calibrations are combined with the differential simultaneous imaging technique to further attenuate the PSF: reference star subtraction and instrument rotation to smooth aberrations. It is shown that a faint companion with a $\Delta H$ of 10 magnitudes would be detected at $0.5^{\prime \prime}$ from the primary.

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