Physics / Research / IoA
The University of Sydney University    Faculty of Science    School of Physics

Masked-Aperture Imaging

Optical interferometry research in the IoA is centred on two types of systems. Long baseline interferometry has been a major research effort in Sydney for 40 years, with the The Sydney University Stellar Interferometer (SUSI) now the longest baseline instrument in the world.

Another approach to optical interferometry is to place a mask across the pupil of a conventional large optical telescope. Gordon Robertson and Tim Bedding worked with the MAPPIT instrument using small aperture interferometry on the Anglo-Australian 4-metre optical telescope to study bright stars. His team has confirmed the presence of bright spots on the surface of the star Betelgeuse.

Crazy though it looks - this thing actually exists! It is the first `Pinwheel Nebula', Wolf-Rayet 104, and it is whirling around once every 8 months in the constellation of Sagittarius.

More recently, Peter Tuthill has done some spectacular work using the 10-metre Keck telescopes in Hawaii. Recent Observations include images of a `Pinwheel Nebula', Wolf-Rayet 104 (seen above), which it is whirling around in the constellation of Sagittarius, plus stars both forming and dying. See images and more information at Peter Tuthill's web page.