Title: High Contrast Observations of Bright Stars with a Starshade,
Abstract: Starshades are a leading technology to enable the direct detection and
spectroscopic characterization of Earth-like exoplanets. In an effort to
advance starshade technology through system level demonstrations, the
McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope was adapted to enable the suppression of
astronomical sources with a starshade. The long baselines achievable with the
heliostat provide measurements of starshade performance at a flight-like
Fresnel number and resolution, aspects critical to the validation of optical
models. The heliostat has provided the opportunity to perform the first
astronomical observations with a starshade and has made science accessible in a
unique parameter space, high contrast at moderate inner working angles. On-sky
images are valuable for developing the experience and tools needed to extract
science results from future starshade observations. We report on high contrast
observations of nearby stars provided by a starshade. We achieve 5.6e-7
contrast at 30 arcseconds inner working angle on the star Vega and provide new
photometric constraints on background stars near Vega.