The Visible spEctroGraph and polArimeter (VEGA) was installed in September 2007 at the CHARA array. VEGA measures spectrally dispersed interference fringes, providing a spatial resolution of 0.3 mas and spectral resolutions from R = 6,000 to 30,000 over a wavelength of 480-850nm. VEGA was decommissioned in December 2020 to make way for the next generation optical, 6-telescope combiner SPICA.
VEGA can be used to measure the fundamental properties of stars, study their stellar activity, and analyze the spatial and kinematic properties of their circumstellar environments.
Visit the VEGA website for more information. The VEGA Observing page includes user manuals and documentation on preparing observations and reducing data.
Instrument Papers
VEGA: Visible spEctroGraph and polArimeter for the CHARA array: principle and performance - Mourard et al. 2009, A&A, 508, 1073 (pdf)
Spatio-spectral encoding of fringes in optical long-baseline interferometry: Example of the 3T and 4T recombining mode of VEGA/CHARA - Mourard et al. 2011, A&A, 531, A110 (pdf)
The Operation of VEGA/CHARA: From the Scientific Idea to the Final Products - Ligi et al. 2013, JAI, 2,1340003 (pdf)
VEGA: a visible spectrograph and polarimeter for CHARA - Mourard et al. 2006, SPIE, 6268, 3Q (pdf)
VEGA: a new Visible spEctroGraph and polArimeter on the CHARA Array - Mourard et al. 2008, SPIE, 7013, 23 (pdf)
Performances and first science results with the VEGA/CHARA visible instrument - Mourard et al. 2010, SPIE, 7734, 0D (pdf)
Performances and first science results with the VEGA/CHARA visible instrument - Mourard et al. 2012, SPIE, 8445, 0K (pdf)
Modeling chromatic instrumental effects for a better model fitting of optical interferometric data - Tallon et al. 2014, SPIE, 9146, 0N (pdf)
