| Issue |
EAS Publications Series
Volume 8, 2003
Astronomy with High Contrast Imaging
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 233 - 243 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/eas:2003067 | |
| Published online | 28 May 2003 | |
Claude Aime and Rémi Soummer (eds)
EAS Publications Series, 8 (2003) 233-243
Effects of Quasi-Static Aberrations in Faint Companion Searches
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
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 μm, 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 ΔH of 10 magnitudes would be detected at 0.5" from the primary.
© EAS, EDP Sciences, 2003