A simple two-element optical interferometer. Light from two small telescopes (shown as |lenses) is combined using beam splitters at detectors 1, 2, 3 and 4. The elements creating a 1/4 wave delay in the light allow the phase and amplitude of the interference visibility to be measured, which give information about the shape of the light source. It is optically identical to this telescope with an aperture mask

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A simple two-element optical interferometer. Light from two small telescopes (shown as |lenses) is combined using beam splitters at detectors 1, 2, 3 and 4. The elements creating a 1/4 wave delay in the light allow the phase and amplitude of the interference visibility to be measured, which give information about the shape of the light source. It is optically identical to this telescope with an aperture mask