Design and construction of an echelle spectrograph: HERCULES

Stuart I. Barnes; John B. Hearnshaw; Graeme Kershaw; Garry Nankivell

doi:10.1117/12.454891

5 February 2002 Design and construction of an echelle spectrograph: HERCULES

Stuart I. Barnes, John B. Hearnshaw, Graeme Kershaw, Garry Nankivell

Proceedings Volume 4411, Large Lenses and Prisms; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.454891
Event: Large Lenses and Prisms, 2001, London, United Kingdom

Abstract

A fiber-fed spectrograph (HERCULES) has recently been installed at the Mt. John Observatory. This spectrograph achieves resolving powers of 35,000 and 70,000 using 100 micrometers and 50 micrometers fibers. The spectrograph is designed to capture the visual spectrum from 380 nm to 880 nm in a single exposure on a 50 mm square CCD. As the spectrograph is enclosed in a vacuum tank and is thermally isolated it is expected that high precision radial velocity measurements will be obtainable. Overall instrument efficiency is predicted to peak at 23% in 1' seeing. Preliminary design ideas for the 11 m Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) high resolution spectrograph are also discussed. While it is hoped that a variant of the HERCULES design can be adopted for this instrument, as with all spectrographs designed for large telescopes, the design presents significant challenges.

Citation Download Citation

Stuart I. Barnes, John B. Hearnshaw, Graeme Kershaw, and Garry Nankivell "Design and construction of an echelle spectrograph: HERCULES", Proc. SPIE 4411, Large Lenses and Prisms, (5 February 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.454891

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