Adaptive Mask coronagraph

Pierre Bourget (1) , R. Vieira Martins , Florent Colas , P. Assus (2) , Abdanour Irbah (1)

1 SA - Service d'aéronomie
2 CASSIOPEE - Laboratoire de Cosmologie, Astrophysique Stellaire & Solaire, de Planétologie et de Mécanique des Fluides

In this paper, the new coronagraph that will be mounted at the Pic du Midi Observatory (IMCCE - T1m telescope) is presented. To optimize the occulting process of a Lyot coronagraph, a compressed mercury (Hg) drop is used as an occulting disk and its size control offers an adaptation to the seeing conditions or to the Airy diameter fraction needed. In addition to the Hg-mask, a variation on the theme is proposed by a diameter and wavelength adaptive phase mask made of a gas bubble in immersion oil between two optical windows. The instrument concept offers a good versatility to test other mask type and pupil apodization techniques.

Domaines: Instrumentation et méthodes pour l'astrophysique [astro-ph.IM]; Instrumentation et méthodes pour l'astrophysique [astro-ph.IM]

Pierre Bourget, R. Vieira Martins, Florent Colas, P. Assus, Abdanour Irbah. Adaptive Mask coronagraph. Direct Imaging of Exoplanets: Science & Techniques, Oct 2005, Villefrance sur Mer, France. pp.461-466. ⟨hal-00435809⟩