Poster Abstracts

Name/Affiliation:  Anders M. Jorgensen (New Mexico Tech)

Title:  Update on the Stellar Surface Imaging Project at NPOI

Abstract:
A. M. Jorgensen, H. R. Schmitt, M. Landavazo, B. Sun, D. Mozurkewich, G. T. van Belle, D. J. Hutter, J. T. Armstrong, E. K. Baines, J. Clark, K. Newman, S. R. Restaino We are working on a project to carry out stellar surface imaging at the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer (NPOI). The project is recently funded by the NSF, and will extend the baseline bootstrapping capability of the NPOI to 6-station observations in each of the three arms of the NPOI Y-configuration array. The project requires the commissioning of one telescope station beyond what is already in place or in the process of commissioning, and upgrades to the data acquisition and fringe-tracking system. 6-station bootstrapping is not possible with any other existing interferometer and the number of image elements is directly related to the length of the bootstrapping chain. Additionally we expect to take advantage of wavelength bootstrapping for additional resolution at short wavelength. Here we will provide an update on the project and also discuss some modeling results showing the kind of imaging resolution that will be possible and amount of observing time required to produce an image.