Zimmerman Neil Thomas author Columbia University. Astronomy and Astrophysics Oppenheimer Ben R. thesis advisor Columbia University. Astronomy and Astrophysics Columbia University. Astronomy and Astrophysics originator text Dissertations 2011 English This thesis is comprised of work carried out during the commissioning phase of Project 1640, a combined coronagraph--integral field spectrograph for Palomar Observatory's adaptive optics-equipped 200'' Hale Telescope. I have divided my investigations into three chapters. First, I describe the data reduction pipeline software, which solves a number of data extraction and calibration challenges unique to this kind of instrument. In the second chapter, I demonstrate a novel method for faint companion discovery which takes advantage of the high-precision relative astrometry enabled by a pupil plane reticle grid. This tool, in combination with the spectrophotometric capability of the integral field spectrograph, reveal that the A5V star Alcor has a heretofore unknown M-dwarf companion. In my third chapter, I explore the suitability of combining the non-redundant aperture mask interferometry technique with an integral field spectrograph. In the proof-of-concept observation of the spectroscopic binary star Beta CrB, I retrieve the first near-infrared spectrum of its F-dwarf companion. Ph.D., Columbia University. Astronomy http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:10968 NNC NNC 2011-08-23 09:44:48 -0400 2013-03-29 16:50:28 -0400 4965 eng