Eta Carinae resolved by speckle interferometry*

G. Weigelt und J. Ebersberger

Abstract

Digital speckle interferometric observations of Eta Carinae were performed at wavelengths of 820 and 850 nm with the 3.6-m and 2.2-m telescope at ESO. Four star-like components (stars or gas clouds) were resolved for the first time. The diameter of all four components is less than 0.03 arcsec. The field size of the reconstructed autocorrelation is about 0.8 arcsec. The separations of the components A2, A3 and A4 relative to the brightest component A1 are 0.18, 0.22 and 0.09 arcsec, respectively.


Speckle masking observations of eta Carinae

Hofmann, K.-H., Weigelt, G.


Abstract

We have performed speckle masking observations of eta Carinae at 850 nm with the 2.2m ESO/MPG telescope. The reconstructed diffraction-limited image shows that eta Carinae consists of one dominant star and three fainter star-like objects at separations of 0.21'', 0.18'' and 0.11''. The three faint objects are ~12 times fainter than the dominant star. The diameter of all four objects is <0.03".

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