Re: Synthetic Aperture Systems in Astronomy

Synthetic aperture aystems are in widespread use in radio astronomy. The radio technique was pioneered at Cambridge under the leadership of Sir Martin Ryle. The definitive reference on this technique for radio astronomy is the book "Interferometry and Synthesis in Radio Astronomy" by Thompson, Moran, and Swenson. A couple of web links with some abbreviated information are: Fundamentals of aperture synthesis and Aperture Synthesis for Beginners Application of interferometry to optical wavelengths is an area of feverish research, and is only beginning to become comparable to the well-established radio technique. The lead is, for the moment, held by Cambridge again, with their COAST system, described at the COAST Homepage. This system is probably what you read about. Many other groups are working on a wide array of infrared and optical interferometers. Some links to these efforts can be found at Optical Interferometry at JPL under the 'links' heading.