Auto-correlation of Binary stars

Abstract

Speckle interferometric technique is used to record a series of short exposure images of several close binary stars with sub-arcsecond separation through a narrow band filter centred at H$α$ at the Cassegrain focus of the 2.34 meter Vainu Bappu telescope (VBT), situated at Vainu Bappu Observatory (VBO), Kavalur. The auto-correlation method is developed under Image Reduction Analysis Facility (IRAF). Wiener filter is included in the programme to eliminate spurious high frequency contributions; a few sets of data provide the optimised results. The auto-correlated image of these stars gives the separation of the binary components.

8 pages Latex files including figures. Ind. J. Physics, 2001 (accepted for publication)