Imaging from the first 6-beam infrared combiner

Michigan InfraRed Combiner (MIRC) is a near-infrared image-plane combiner at the CHARA array which consists of six 1-m diameter telescopes with the longest baseline of 330m. MIRC was upgraded from a 4-beam to a full 6-beam combiner in July 2011, which now records interferometry data of 15 baselines and 20 triangles simultaneously. The improved snapshot UV coverage has greatly boosted the ability for imaging complicated targets such as the asymmetry of circumstellar disks, interacting binaries and the surfaces of spotted stars. In addition, the Photometric Channels subsystem, which directly measures the real time flux of individual beams, has been upgraded to increase the light throughput to improve the visibility and closure phase calibration. The system sensitivity has been improved as well to allow fainter objects such as Young Stellar Objects (YSOs) to be observable with MIRC for the first time. Our presentation will conclude with first preliminary results of imaging two Be binaries observed by the upgraded MIRC. © (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.