PHASE-REFERENCED INTERFEROMETRY AND NARROW-ANGLE ASTROMETRY WITH SUSI

Abstract

The Sydney University Stellar Interferometer (SUSI) now incorporates a new beam combiner, called the Microarc-second University of Sydney Companion Astrometry instrument (MUSCA), for the purpose of high precision differential astrometry of bright binary stars. Operating in the visible wavelength regime where photon-counting and post-processing fringe tracking is possible, MUSCA will be used in tandem with SUSI's primary beam combiner, Precision Astronomical Visible Observations (PAVO), to record high spatial resolution fringes and thereby measure the separation of fringe packets of binary stars. In its current phase of development, the dual beam combiner configuration has successfully demonstrated for the first time a dual-star phase-referencing operation in visible wavelengths. This paper describes the beam combiner optics and hardware, the network of metrology systems employed to measure every non-common path between the two beam combiners and also reports on a recent narrow-angle astrometric observation of δ Orionis A (HR 1852) as the project enters its on-sky testing phase.