Mid-infrared interferometry with high spectral resolution

Abstract

The Infrared Spatial Interferometer (ISI) is a three telescope interferometer system that operates near 11 microns wavelength using heterodyne detection with CO 2 lasers as local oscillators. Stellar measurements have been made using consistent instrumentation for 20 years, allowing comparisons of stellar sizes of red giant and Mira stars over time intervals which are long in comparison to stellar luminosity periods. Recent visibility and closure phase measurements of the star Betelgeuse have been fitted to simple image models and these results have been added to the 17 year record of stellar observations. A new area of investigation of stellar properties at very high spectral resolution will begin in the 2010-2011 observing season. The design of a new digital spectrometer-correlator system is discussed. This system will obtain visibility measurements on-and-off individual spectral lines and the continuum, simultaneously.