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The CHARA Array is a six 1-m telescope optical/IR interferometric array located on Mount Wilson California, designed and built by the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy of Georgia State University. In this paper we describe the main elements of the Array hardware and software control systems as well as the data reduction methods currently being used. Our plans for upgrades in the near future are also described

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Mass transfer during the evolution of intermediate-mass stars in a close binary system can result in a rejuvenated and spun-up secondary star (which may appear as a rapidly rotating Be star) orbiting an unseen, stripped-down, remnant companion. One of the best candidates for such a system is the longperiod (127 days) binary / Per. Here we present new Hubble Space Telescope Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph spectra of / Per in several UV regions that show clearly for the Ðrst time the spectral signature of the faint remnant companion. We derive a double-lined solution for the radial velocity curve that yields masses of 9.3^0.3 and 1.14^0.04 for the Be star and companion, respectively. A M _ M _ Doppler tomographic reconstruction of the secondary spectrum shows a rich spectrum dominated by sharp Fe IV and Fe V lines, similar to those observed in hot sdO stars. Non-LTE spectrum synthesis indicates that the subdwarf has temperature kK and gravity log g \ 4.2^0.1 and that the T eff \ 53^3 subdwarfÈtoÈBe star Ñux ratio is 0.165^0.006 and 0.154^0.009 for the 1374 and 1647 regions, A respectively. The spectrum of the Be primary appears normal for a very rapidly rotating early B-type star, but we argue that the star is overluminous for its mass (perhaps owing to accretion-induced mixing). Additional sharp lines of Fe IV appear when the companion is in the foreground, and we show that these form in a heated region of the Be starÏs disk that faces the hot subdwarf.