Optical design options for hypertelescopes and prototype testing

International audienceHypertelescopes are large optical interferometric arrays, employing many small mirrors and a miniature pupildensifier before the focal camera, expected to produce direct images of celestial sources at high resolution. Their peculiar imaging properties, initially explored through analytical derivations, had been verified with simulations before testing a full-size testbed instrument. We describe several architectures and optical design solutions and present recent progress made on the Ubaye hypertelescope experiment. Arecibo-like versions with a fixed spherical primary meta-mirror, or an active aspheric one, have a suspended focal beam combiner equipped for pupil-drift accommodation, with a field-mosaic arrangement for observing multiple sources such as exoplanetary systems, globular clusters or active galactic nuclei. We have developed a cable suspension and drive system with tracking accuracy reaching a millimeter at 100m above ground