COMPUTER SIMULATIONS OF SPECKLE INTERFEROMETRY OF BINARY STARS IN PHOTON-COUNTING MODE

Vector autocorrelation calculations have been carried out on photon-limited computer-simulated images of binary stars. The variation of signal, background and noise with the number of pictures, the average number of detected photons per picture, the average number of additive noise photons per picture and the magnitude difference of the binary has been studied and shown to agree with a simple theory. The calculations indicate that binary stars as faint as approximately 18 mag may be resolved to the diffraction limit in 35 min of observing time on a large telescope. © 1978 Royal Astronomical Society.