C.O.A.S.T. Current Status

History

COAST was designed in 1986 and construction had begun by 1988. The first stellar fringes were obtained in June 1991. Stellar fringes have been detected and tracked regularly in the visible system since 1992 and these results show good fringe visibilities. Tentative closure phase was obtained at the start of 1993, and by later that year results were convincing. The first images were made in September 1995.

The first infrared stellar fringes were observed on 1 January 1995, when measurements were taken of alpha Tauri at 1.3 microns. The first convincing non-zero closure phases were measured on 25 October 1997, on the binary star Capella. We obtained sufficient data to reconstruct the first infrared image from an aperture synthesis array.

The Current Status

The COAST array has five operational telescopes, and the longest baseline is currently 48 metres. Foundations are in place for a 100m baseline. The optical and infrared correlators are complete, and a regular observing programme using both is in progress.

A broad band detector (700-940nm) is operational and has been installed. For details see Lawson et al (1998).

The current status of COAST was described most recently by Haniff et al (2000).

Follow this link for published astronomical results.

Last changed 5 Jan 2001
The COAST web pages are maintained by John Young ( J.S.Young@mrao.cam.ac.uk )
Original page by David Burns