Closure phase and lucky imaging

Since its introduction by Jennison in 1958, the closure-phase method for removing the effects of electrical path-length errors in radio astronomy and of atmospheric turbulence in optical astronomy has been based on the non-redundant-spacing triple interferometer. It is shown that through application of lucky imaging concepts it is possible to relax this condition, making closure-phase methods possible with redundantly spaced interferometer configurations and thereby widening their range of application. In particular, a quadruple-interferometer can, under lucky imaging conditions, be treated as though it were a triple interferometer. The slit-annulus aperture is investigated as a special case.