Optical interferometry & CHARA array

1:00:50they have classical music concerts at Mount Wilson in the telescope dome. >> And I for the longest time thought that nighttime astronomy was dead. >> Mhm. at Mount Wilson because of the light pollution from Los Angeles. Nighttime astronomy had been retired and all they did was solar astronomy. But no, Cara was up there. Six small 1 m telescopes all along the mountain. They route their light through vacuum tubes. >> It was just crazy. >> And then and then they have a central array where they where they make them interfere and actually get that resolution. It was it was cool. >> Yeah. that um you know astronomy cutting edge astronomy is still alive and well in Mount Wilson >> in in beautiful sunny Los Angeles

1:01:31>> Los Angeles where it all started. [laughter] >> Um so this paper's profound claim so we've got we've gone through you know >> rally limit which is just the physics of light waves. >> Yes. >> And we've gone through the atmosphere and so on and so forth. >> Yes. The core claim that got me thinking about what this paper was they said the rally criterion is not fundamental. So it's like Jack Sparrow being like it's more like guidelines, [laughter] >> right? Like not like like I was like what are you talking about? Like I thought the rally criterion I learned this in undergrad and I thought that was it. >> Yeah. Right. Right. >> Insane. So here's the thing. >> The idea is like there previously this

1:02:12was viewed as a fundamental limitation at a physics level. at a physics level. Right? Then I started reading. So the rally criterion assumes the following. The only thing that you're sensitive to is the intensity of the light. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Mhm. >> You've got a telescope. You've got a CCD in the back. The telescope creates an image. The CCD then tells how much intensity of light is coming from this direction, this direction, and it creates an image. >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> But light is an electromagnetic wave and there is phase information. >> Okay. >> Right. Because the electromagnetic wave