Integrating the HERMES spectrograph for the AAT

Jeroen Heijmans; Martin Asplund; Sam Barden; Michael Birchall; Daniela Carollo; Joss Bland-Hawthorn; Jurek Brzeski; Scott Case; Vladimir Churilov; Matthew Colless; Robert Dean; Gayandhi De Silva; Tony Farrell; Kristin Fiegert; Kenneth Freeman; Luke Gers; Michael Goodwin; Doug Gray; Ron Heald; Anthony Heng; Damien Jones; Chiaki Kobayashi; Urs Klauser; Yuriy Kondrat; Jon Lawrence; Steve Lee; Darren Mathews; Don Mayfield; Stan Miziarski; Guy J. Monnet; Rolf Muller; Naveen Pai; Robert Patterson; Ed Penny; David Orr; Andrew Sheinis; Keith Shortridge; Scott Smedley; Greg Smith; Darren Stafford; Nicholas Staszak; Minh Vuong; Lewis Waller; Denis Whittard; Elisabeth Wylie de Boer; Pascal Xavier; Jessica Zheng; Ross Zhelem; Daniel Zucker

doi:10.1117/12.925806

5 October 2012 Integrating the HERMES spectrograph for the AAT

Jeroen Heijmans, Martin Asplund, Sam Barden, Michael Birchall, Daniela Carollo, Joss Bland-Hawthorn, Jurek Brzeski, Scott Case, Vladimir Churilov, Matthew Colless, Robert Dean, Gayandhi De Silva, Tony Farrell, Kristin Fiegert, Kenneth Freeman, Luke Gers, Michael Goodwin, Doug Gray, Ron Heald, Anthony Heng, Damien Jones, Chiaki Kobayashi, Urs Klauser, Yuriy Kondrat, Jon Lawrence, Steve Lee, Darren Mathews, Don Mayfield, Stan Miziarski, Guy J. Monnet, Rolf Muller, Naveen Pai, Robert Patterson, Ed Penny, David Orr, Andrew Sheinis, Keith Shortridge, Scott Smedley, Greg Smith, Darren Stafford, Nicholas Staszak, Minh Vuong, Lewis Waller, Denis Whittard, Elisabeth Wylie de Boer, Pascal Xavier, Jessica Zheng, Ross Zhelem, Daniel Zucker

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8446, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IV; 84460W (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.925806
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

The High Efficiency and Resolution Multi Element Spectrograph, HERMES is an optical spectrograph designed primarily for the GALAH, Galactic Archeology Survey, the first major attempt to create a detailed understanding of galaxy formation and evolution by studying the history of our own galaxy, the Milky Way¹. The goal of the GALAH survey is to reconstruct the mass assembly history of the of the Milky way, through a detailed spatially tagged abundance study of one million stars in the Milky Way. The spectrograph will be based at the Anglo Australian Telescope (AAT) and be fed with the existing 2dF robotic fibre positioning system. The spectrograph uses VPH-gratings to achieve a spectral resolving power of 28,000 in standard mode and also provides a high resolution mode ranging between 40,000 to 50,000 using a slit mask. The GALAH survey requires a SNR greater than 100 aiming for a star brightness of V=14. The total spectral coverage of the four channels is about 100nm between 370 and 1000nm for up to 392 simultaneous targets within the 2 degree field of view. Current efforts are focused on manufacturing and integration. The delivery date of spectrograph at the telescope is scheduled for 2013. A performance prediction is presented and a complete overview of the status of the HERMES spectrograph is given. This paper details the following specific topics: The approach to AIT, the manufacturing and integration of the large mechanical frame, the opto-mechanical slit assembly, collimator optics and cameras, VPH gratings, cryostats, fibre cable assembly, instrument control hardware and software, data reduction.

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Jeroen Heijmans, Martin Asplund, Sam Barden, Michael Birchall, Daniela Carollo, Joss Bland-Hawthorn, Jurek Brzeski, Scott Case, Vladimir Churilov, Matthew Colless, Robert Dean, Gayandhi De Silva, Tony Farrell, Kristin Fiegert, Kenneth Freeman, Luke Gers, Michael Goodwin, Doug Gray, Ron Heald, Anthony Heng, Damien Jones, Chiaki Kobayashi, Urs Klauser, Yuriy Kondrat, Jon Lawrence, Steve Lee, Darren Mathews, Don Mayfield, Stan Miziarski, Guy J. Monnet, Rolf Muller, Naveen Pai, Robert Patterson, Ed Penny, David Orr, Andrew Sheinis, Keith Shortridge, Scott Smedley, Greg Smith, Darren Stafford, Nicholas Staszak, Minh Vuong, Lewis Waller, Denis Whittard, Elisabeth Wylie de Boer, Pascal Xavier, Jessica Zheng, Ross Zhelem, and Daniel Zucker "Integrating the HERMES spectrograph for the AAT", Proc. SPIE 8446, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IV, 84460W (5 October 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.925806

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