This award will support the continuation of a program to develop and utilize techniques for diffraction-limited imaging of infrared astronomical objects from large aperture, ground-based telescopes. Recent developments in detector and telescope technology and also in image processing now allow large improvements to be made in observing efficiency, angular resolution, and scientific productivity. For this purpose, a specially constructed, two-dimensional camera will be used in the wavelength range from 1 to 5.5 microns to utilize both the unsurpassed angular resolution of the cophased 6.86m Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) and the availability of conventional telescopes in the northern and southern hemispheres. This instrumentation will be used to characterize the masses and luminosities of low mass stars and substellar objects which are only barely observable at the present time. It will also help examine the innermost regions of circumstellar material around both young and evolved stars and produce high spatial resolution maps of volcanic activity on Jupiter's moon Io. To provide more accurate, higher contrast images and to detect wavelength- dependent structures, new techniques will be developed for differential speckle interferometry, more powerful bispectrum analysis, and for more accurate calibration of atmospheric seeing. In a continuation of a very successful outreach program, high school teachers and students will also be involved directly in this research program.
