All you ever wanted to know about optical long baseline stellar interferometry, but were too shy to ask your adviser

TL;DR

This paper provides an accessible overview of optical long baseline stellar interferometry, covering its history, principles, physical processes, and limitations to help newcomers understand and navigate the field.

Contribution

It offers a beginner-friendly summary of the key concepts, issues, and practical considerations in astronomical interferometry, emphasizing intuition over technical detail.

Findings

Highlights the historical development of interferometry techniques

Explains fundamental physical processes affecting optical interferometry

Identifies common limitations and practical issues in the field

Abstract

I try to present a small view of the properties and issues related to astronomical interferometry observations. I recall a bit of history of the technique, give some basic assessments to the principle of interferometry, and finally, describe physical processes and limitations that affect optical long baseline interferometry and which are, in general, very useful for everyday work. Therefore, this text is not intended to perform strong demonstrations and show accurate results, but rather to transmit the general "feeling" one needs to have to not be destabilised by the first contact to real world interferometry.