First result with AMBER+FINITO on the VLTI: the high-precision angular diameter of V3879 Sagittarii ^*,**

¹ European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile e-mail: jlebouqu@eso.org
² European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching, Germany

Received: 25 August 2007
Accepted: 26 October 2007

Abstract

Aims. Our goal is to demonstrate the potential of the interferometric AMBER instrument linked with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) fringe-tracking facility FINITO to derive high-precision stellar diameters.

Methods. We use commissioning data obtained on the bright single star V3879 Sgr. Locking the interferometric fringes with FINITO allows us to record very low contrast fringes on the AMBER camera. By fitting the amplitude of these fringes, we measure the diameter of the target in three directions simultaneously with an accuracy of 25 micro-arcseconds.

Results. We showed that V3879 Sgr has a round photosphere down to a sub-percent level. We quickly reached this level of accuracy because the technique used is independent from absolute calibration (at least for baselines that fully span the visibility null). We briefly discuss the potential biases found at this level of precision.

Conclusions. The proposed AMBER + FINITO instrumental setup opens several perspectives for the VLTI in the field of stellar astrophysics, like measuring with high accuracy the oblateness of fast rotating stars or detecting atmospheric starspots.