Detailed knowledge of the image of the point spread function (PSF) is necessary to optimize
astronomical coronagraph masks and to understand potential sources of errors in …

This work quantifies the influence of the terrestrial atmosphere on the instrumental
polarization (IP) of telescopes. Our numerical simulations show that seeing mostly induces a …

We present a technique to model the instrumental polarization in the focal plane of a
telescope. It takes into account that different rays of an incoming beam suffer different …

An account is given of the formation of polarization-dependent fringes, the “enemies" of
spectropolarimetry, present practically in all polarization devices. Typically, multiple …

Derivation of accurate polarization information about an astronomical target is a vital tool for
investigation of astrophysical processes. Use of large area detectors for imaging and …

Context. Next-generation large segmented mirror telescopes are expected to perform direct
imaging and characterization of Earth-like rocky planets, which requires contrast limits of …

In this paper we present an error analysis for polarimetric data obtained with dual‐beam
instruments. After recalling the basic concepts, we introduce the analytical expressions for …

Stellar images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope at various focus positions have been
analyzed to estimate wave-front distortion. Rather than using a single algorithm, we found …

Accurate astrophysical polarimetry requires a proper characterization of the polarization
properties of the telescope and instrumentation employed to obtain the observations …

Taking advantage of the advances in array detector technology, an imaging polarimeter
(IMPOL) has been constructed for measuring linear polarization in the wavelength band …