Overview

For the past 20 years the CHARA Array has offered the highest angular resolution observations in astronomy. Recently, the Array has added a 7th telescope to extend the existing 6 telescope array. The CHARA Michelson Array Pathfinder (CMAP) is a 1m telescope mounted in a custom designed mobile trailer. The telescope and trailer can be placed at multiple locations around the Mount Wilson Observatory site. Optical fibers connect the fixed and mobile sites to the CHARA optical delay and combiner lab. This enables new short baselines of ~17m for imaging the surfaces of large stars and new long baselines on the order of ~600m for resolving small stars. First fringes of this system are expected this year and in the near future, there are plans to expand to greater than 1 km maximum baselines, opening the path to micro-arcsecond astronomy.