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Mykerinos: Preparing Long Baseline Interferometry at Dome C

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

L. Abe
Affiliation:
Laboratoire Hippolyte Fizeau, UMR 6525, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, 28 avenue Valrose, 06108 Nice Cedex 2, France
F.-X. Schmider
Affiliation:
Laboratoire Hippolyte Fizeau, UMR 6525, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, 28 avenue Valrose, 06108 Nice Cedex 2, France
J.-B. Daban
Affiliation:
Laboratoire Hippolyte Fizeau, UMR 6525, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, 28 avenue Valrose, 06108 Nice Cedex 2, France
R. Petrov
Affiliation:
Laboratoire Hippolyte Fizeau, UMR 6525, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, 28 avenue Valrose, 06108 Nice Cedex 2, France
B. Valat
Affiliation:
Laboratoire Hippolyte Fizeau, UMR 6525, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, 28 avenue Valrose, 06108 Nice Cedex 2, France
F. Vakili
Affiliation:
Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Boulevard de l'Observatoire, BP. 4229, 06304 Nice Cedex 4, France
V. Coudé du Foresto
Affiliation:
LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon Cedex, France
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Abstract

Site studies have proved Dome C to be an excellent site for optical interferometry, maybe the only possible site on Earth for the deployement of a large post-VLTI interferometric facility, like KEOPS. Indeed, recent studies have shown the possiblity of interferometric observations of faint objects, high sensitivity and high precision observations, direct imaging and nulling interferometry. However the achievement of this ambitious project assumes the pavement of a roadmap, including different steps. The first one should be a demonstrator, called Mykerinos. Mykerinos is a diluted aperture interferometer composed of at least two light collecting units with a baseline between 40 to 100 m (or more) consisting of  50 cm diameter telescopes. The telescope design is directly derived from our Laboratory's experience in the ASTEP experiment. Mykerinos will be equipped with a dual field focal instrument which is a pre-requisite for its site testing, as well as for its science demonstration purposes.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© EAS, EDP Sciences, 2010

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References

Elhalkouj, T., Ziad, A., Petrov, R.G., et al., 2008, A&A, 477, 337
Elhalkouj, T., Petrov, R.G., Lazrek, M., & Benkhaldoun, Z., 2006, IAU Colloq. 200: Direct Imaging of Exoplanets: Science & Techniques, 313
Valat, B., 2009, Ph.D. Thesis