Abstract
THE recent measurement at the Mount Wilson Observatory, California, with the aid of an [ interferometer, of the angular diameter of the star Betelgeuse has attracted much attention, and has incidentally illustrated the advantages to be derived from the application of interference methods to astronomical measurement. In view of the striking success of this application, it is somewhat surprising that the possibilities of the method have been generally overlooked by astronomers, for the principles underlying the methods are by no means new, and their application to the determination of the angular diameters of the stars was indicated by Fizeau so long ago as 1868. It is of interest to recall the exact words used by Fizeau, the suggestion being thrown out by him incidentally in a report on the Bordin prize of the Academic des Sciences:—
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JONES, H. The Application of Interference Methods to Astronomy. Nature 107, 685–688 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/107685a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/107685a0