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The CHARA Array is an optical astronomical interferometer
Astronomical interferometer

An astronomical interferometer is an array of telescopes or mirror segments acting together to probe structures with higher resolution. Astronomical interferometers are widely used for optical astronomy, infrared astronomy, submillimetre astronomy and radio astronomy....
 operated by The Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) of the Georgia State University
Georgia State University

Georgia State University is an Urban area research university in downtown Atlanta, Georgia , USA. Founded in 1913, it serves over 28,000 students, and is one of the University System of Georgia four research universities....
 (GSU). CHARA is the World's highest angular resolution
Angular resolution

Angular resolution describes the resolving power of any such as an Optical telescope or radio telescope, a microscope, a camera, or an eye....
 telescope at near-infrared wavelengths. It is located at the Mount Wilson Observatory
Mount Wilson Observatory

The Mount Wilson Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson , a 5,715 foot peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, California, northeast of Los Angeles....
, near Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles is the largest city in the U.S. state of California and the List of United States cities by population in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles is rated as a beta global city, has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California....
.

The CHARA Array is an interferometer formed from six 1 meter (40-inch) telescopes arranged along three axes with a maximum separation length of 330 m.






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The CHARA Array is an optical astronomical interferometer
Astronomical interferometer

An astronomical interferometer is an array of telescopes or mirror segments acting together to probe structures with higher resolution. Astronomical interferometers are widely used for optical astronomy, infrared astronomy, submillimetre astronomy and radio astronomy....
 operated by The Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) of the Georgia State University
Georgia State University

Georgia State University is an Urban area research university in downtown Atlanta, Georgia , USA. Founded in 1913, it serves over 28,000 students, and is one of the University System of Georgia four research universities....
 (GSU). CHARA is the World's highest angular resolution
Angular resolution

Angular resolution describes the resolving power of any such as an Optical telescope or radio telescope, a microscope, a camera, or an eye....
 telescope at near-infrared wavelengths. It is located at the Mount Wilson Observatory
Mount Wilson Observatory

The Mount Wilson Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson , a 5,715 foot peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, California, northeast of Los Angeles....
, near Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles is the largest city in the U.S. state of California and the List of United States cities by population in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles is rated as a beta global city, has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California....
.

The CHARA Array is an interferometer formed from six 1 meter (40-inch) telescopes arranged along three axes with a maximum separation length of 330 m. The light beams travel through vacuum tubes and are combined optically, requiring a building 100 meters long with movable mirrors to keep the light in phase as the earth rotates. CHARA began scientific use in 2002 and began "routine operations" in early 2004. In the infrared, the array has an interferometric imaging resolution of 0.0005 arcseconds. All six telescopes are in regular use for scientific observations and as of late 2005 imaging results are routinely acquired. The array captured the first image of the surface of a main sequence star other than the sun published in early 2007.

See also

  • Cambridge Optical Aperture Synthesis Telescope (COAST)
  • Infrared Optical Telescope Array
    Infrared Optical Telescope Array

    The Infrared Optical Telescope Array began with an agreement in 1988 among five Institutions, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Harvard University, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Wyoming, and MIT/Lincoln Laboratory, to build a two-telescope stellar interferometer for the purpose of making fundamental astrophysica...
  • Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer
  • Palomar Testbed Interferometer
    Palomar Testbed Interferometer

    The Palomar Testbed Interferometer is a near-IR, long-baseline stellar interferometer located at Palomar Observatory in north San Diego County. It was built by Caltech/JPL and is intended to serve as a testbed for developing interferometric techniques to be used at the Keck Interferometer....
  • Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer
    Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer

    The Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer is an interferometer operated by the US Naval Observatory, the Naval Research Laboratory and The Lowell Observatory....
  • Very Large Telescope
    Very Large Telescope

    The Very Large Telescope is a system of four separate optical telescopes organized in an array formation, built and operated by the European Southern Observatory at the Paranal Observatory on Cerro Paranal, a 2,635 m high mountain in the Atacama desert in northern Chile....


Featured objects:
  • Altair
    Altair

    Altair is the brightest star in the constellation Aquila and the list of brightest stars in the night sky. It is an Stellar classification#Class A main sequence star with an apparent visual magnitude of 0.77 and is one of the vertices of the Summer Triangle; the other two are Deneb and Vega....
  • Vega
    Vega

    Vega is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, the list of brightest stars in the night sky and the second brightest star in the northern Celestial sphere, after Arcturus....


External links

  • , the home page of CHARA at Georgia State University
    Georgia State University

    Georgia State University is an Urban area research university in downtown Atlanta, Georgia , USA. Founded in 1913, it serves over 28,000 students, and is one of the University System of Georgia four research universities....
  • , Sky and Telescope article about CHARA.
  • archiv.org