NASA Insignia

First Light Images of ORKID

The image below successfully demonstrates the near diffraction limited observation capabilities at 650 nm of ORKID.

Image of the close binary Theta Orionic C, in a Hydrogen-Alpha narrowband filter (650-660 nm).
Image of the close binary Theta Orionic C, in a Hydrogen-Alpha narrowband filter (650-660 nm).

The binary is detected with an intensity ratio of 6.3 to 1, and at a separation of 44.4 milliarcseconds. This separation is roughly equivalent to the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of a K-band (~2.2um) point spread function (PSF), making it difficult to resolve the two components at longer wavelengths. With a FWHM of 15.1mas, the sharpest PSF ever measured at Keck, the ORKID instrument could detect such a binary system at separations up to ~3x smaller.