Speaker
Description
We recently used the VERITAS SII (Stellar Intensity Interferometry) system to extend SII measurements from round to oblate photospheres of stars. We now aim to push SII further by measuring more complex sources such as Spica, a spectroscopic binary star with a period of approximately 4 days. Spica was first measured by Hanbury Brown using the Narrabri Interferometer in 1971 but has not been measured using SII since then. Measuring Spica's features with modern SII is an important proof of principle for the future measurements of complex systems with future observatories such as CTA. In this talk, I will describe details of the VERITAS SII observations and analysis that led to the first measurement of an oblate photosphere as well as the status and analysis techniques being developed to measure binary systems.
