SIMBAD references

The ability of directly detect close, faint companions to bright stars, depends on image sharpness to a high power (6 to 8 in the case of a planet). We present the first observations with a cornographic mode of the high-resolution camera on the CFH 3.6-m telescope. About 98% of the light of the guide star fell through a 5 arcsec hole and the wings of the image were well-represented by a Moffat profile. Chopping in angle did not reduce glare in the wings as much as we expected because of eccentricity of the star in the aperture, residual asymmetry in the point spread function, and weak radial patterns (in addition to those from the spider). Combing an angular chop with the image of another star to give an instrumental psf, was more successful.

We discuss the recognition and photometry of a faint star in the field of sigma Dra. Snapshots of Procyon yielded a separation of 5.2 arcsec, m_v = 11.3, B-V = +0.26, and B-I = +0.62 for its white dwarf companion.

The detection limits close to sigma Dra, tau Cet and epsilon Eri, are still some 5 magnitudes too bright for the detection of giant planets. Nonetheless, we remain optimistic that, with improving centering, the introduction of frame transfer CCDs, longer exposure times in the 15 percentile seeing at CFHT, and the use of other stars to define the telescope psf and fixed speckle background, it may be possible to realize these limits. Alt-azimuth telescopes present a special challenge!