7 Conclusion and further works

This series of papers illustrates meaningfully the scientific interest of combining the high quality astrometry from space with ground based data. On one hand the absolute astrometry from space enables astronomers to track the tiny motion of the photocenter of close binaries with orbital periods less than a couple of decades, while the relative astrometry from the ground carried out over many years is the only efficient source of orbital parameters. The Hipparcos data have been carefully archived and there are still several systems pinpointed by Hipparcos awaiting the availability of a better orbit to be checked in view of determining the masses of their components.

Acknowledgements

The data transfers from CERGA to CHARA have been possible through the precious help of J.L. Falin. We have also benefited from the SIMBAD astronomical database, maintained at the CDS, Strasbourg, France. The speckle interferometry program at Georgia State University has been supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, most recently through Grant No. AST94-16994, by the office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and by the Research Program Enhancement program administrated by the office of the Vice President for Research and Sponsored Programs at GSU.