The Infrared Spatial Interferometer (ISI) is an astronomical interferometer array of three 65 inch (1.65 m) telescopes operating in the mid-infrared. The telescopes are fully mobile and their current site on Mount Wilson allows for placements as far as 70 m apart, giving the resolution of a telescope of that diameter. The signals are converted to radio frequencies through heterodyne circuits and then combined electronically using techniques copied from radio astronomy. ISI is run by an arm of the University of California, Berkeley. The longest (70m) baseline provides a resolution of 0.003 arcsec at a wavelength of 11 micrometers. On July 9, 2003, ISI recorded the first closure phase aperture synthesis measurements in the mid infrared. Diagram showing a possible layout for an astronomical interferometer, with the mirrors laid out in a parabolic arrangement (similar to the shape of a conventional telescope mirror). ... Image of a small dog taken in mid-infrared (thermal) light (false color) Infrared (IR) radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength longer than that of visible light, but shorter than that of radio waves. ... Mount Wilson is one of the more prominent peaks in the San Gabriel Mountains, part of the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County, California. ... In telecommunications, to heterodyne is to generate new frequencies by mixing two or more signals in a nonlinear device such as a vacuum tube, transistor, or diode mixer. ... Microwave image of 3C353 galaxy at 8. ... The University of California, Berkeley (also known as UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, and by other names, see below) is the oldest and flagship campus of the ten-campus University of California system. ... Arcsec is an abbreviation for either: arcsecond or arcsecant. ... The wavelength is the distance between repeating units of a wave pattern. ... July 9 is the 190th day of the year (191st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 175 days remaining. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The closure phase is an observable quantity in imaging interferometry, which allowed the use of interferometry with very long baselines. ... Aperture synthesis is a type of interferometry that mixes signals from a collection instruments to produce measurements having the same angular resolution as an instrument the size of the entire collection. ...
Feeds |
Contact