Present performance of the dark-speckle coronagraph

Boccaletti A.^1,3, Moutou C.^2,3, Labeyrie A.^2,3 Kohler D.², Vakili F.⁴

¹DESPA, Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, 5 pl J. Janssen F-92195 Meudon, France Boccalet@despa.obspm.fr

²Observatoire de Haute-Provence F-04870 St Michel l'Observatoire, France Moutou@obs-hp.fr, Labeyrie@obs-hp.fr

³Collège de France, 11 Pl. M. Berthelot F-75321 Paris, France

⁴Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Département Fresnel, GI2T F-06460 Saint Vallier de Thiey, France Vakili@obs-azur.fr

Astronomy & Astrophysics | Received xxx; accepted May 1998

Abstract:

We present the recent developments of the dark speckle coronagraph and results obtained on two close binary stars. The central star is occulted by a Lyot coronagraphic system and the residual speckle pattern is detected on a photon-counting camera. Achromaticity is achieved across a wide spectral band, using a Wynne corrector. We observed the relatively faint companions of $\delta$ Per and $\eta$ Psc and give an independent estimate of their position and magnitude difference.

Keywords : planetary systems - brown dwarfs - techniques: interferometric - binaries: close - stars: $\delta$ Per, $\eta$ Psc, $\eta$ And

6/15/1998