A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book
Optical Polarimetry: Methods, Instruments and Calibration Techniques
Authors: Berdyugin A., Piirola V., Poutanen J.
Editors: Roberto Mignani, Andrew Shearer, Agnieszka Słowikowska, Silvia Zane
Publication year: 2019
Book title : Astronomical Polarisation from the Infrared to Gamma Rays
Series title: Astrophysics and Space Science Library
Volume: 460
First page : 33
Last page: 65
Number of pages: 33
ISBN: 978-3-030-19714-8
eISBN: 978-3-030-19715-5
ISSN: 0067-0057
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19715-5_3
Web address : https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-19715-5_3
In this chapter we present a brief summary of methods, instruments and calibration techniques used in modern astronomical polarimetry in the optical wavelengths. We describe the properties of various polarisation devices and detectors used for optical broadband, imaging and spectropolarimetry, and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. The necessity of a proper calibration of the raw polarisation data is emphasised and methods of the determination and subtraction of instrumental polarisation are considered. We also present a few examples of high-precision measurements of optical polarisation of black hole X-ray binaries and massive binary stars made with our DiPol-2 polarimeter, which allowed us to constrain the sources of optical emission in black hole X-ray binaries and measure orbital parameters of massive stellar binaries.
