Differences
In contrast to radio arrays, the largest optical arrays currently have only 6 telescopes, giving poorer image quality from the 15 baselines between the telescopes. Most aperture synthesis interferometers use the rotation of the Earth to increase the number of different baselines included in an observation (see diagram on right).
Taking data at different times provides measurements with different telescope separations and angles without the need for buying additional telescopes or moving the telescopes manually, as the rotation of the Earth moves the telescopes to new baselines.
The use of Earth rotation was discussed in detail in the 1950 paper A preliminary survey of the radio stars in the Northern Hemisphere. Some instruments use artificial rotation of the interferometer array instead of Earth rotation, such as in aperture masking interferometry.
Read more about this topic: Aperture Synthesis
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