Development of a high-dynamic range imaging instrument for a single telescope by a pupil remapping system

We present the laboratory demonstration of a very high-dynamic range imaging instrument FIRST (Fibered Imager foR Single Telescope). FIRST combines the techniques for aperture masking and a single-mode fiber interferometer to correct wavefront errors, which leads to a very high-dynamic range up to 106 around very near the central object (~ λ/D) at visible to near-infrared wavelengths. Our laboratory experiments successfully demonstrated that the original image can be reconstructed through a pupil remapping system. A first on-sky test will be performed at the Lick Observatory 3- m Shane telescope for operational tests in the summer of 2010.