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arXiv · 1105.2615

Deriving Telescope Mueller Matrices Using Daytime Sky Polarization Observations

D. M. Harrington·J. R. Kuhn·S. Hall
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Abstract

Telescopes often modify the input polarization of a source so that the measured circular or linear output state of the optical signal can be signficantly different from the input. This mixing, or polarization "cross-talk", is defined by the optical system Mueller matrix. We describe here an efficient method for recovering the input polarization state of the light and the full 4 x 4 Mueller matrix of the telescope with an accuracy of a few percent without external masks or telescope hardware modification. Observations of the bright, highly polarized daytime sky using the Haleakala 3.7m AEOS telescope and a coude spectropolarimeter demonstrate the technique.

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D. M. Harrington, J. R. Kuhn, S. Hall. 2011-05-13. Deriving Telescope Mueller Matrices Using Daytime Sky Polarization Observations. https://doi.org/10.1086/660894

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