Speckle interferometry

Abstract

Speckle interferometry has proven to be a powerful method for high-angular-resolution observations. With relatively little instrumental effort, it is possible to resolve structures at the diffraction limit of the telescope and measure, e. g., binary parameters. This makes it an ideal method for projects like orbital monitoring of binary systems with periods of more than a few years. However, due to the complex methods required to reduce the data, not very many astronomers know how to use it. I describe the basic methods used to reconstruct modulus and phase of the Fourier-transformed high-resolution image from speckle data. I also show some example data of binary stars, and demonstrate why the simple structure of the Fourier transform of binary star images makes them ideal targets for speckle interferometry. Finally, I present some of the results that were obtained using speckle interferometry.