2010
Ref: ASTROimport-422

HERMES: a high-resolution fibre-fed spectrograph for the Mercator telescope

Raskin, G. ; van Winckel, H. ; Hensberge, H. ; Jorissen, A. ; Lehmann, H. ; Waelkens, C. ; Avila, G. ; de Cuyper, J.-P. ; Degroote, P. ; Dubosson, R. ; Dumortier, L. ; Frémat, Y. ; Laux, U. ; Michaud, B. ; Morren, J. ; Perez Padilla, J. ; Pessemier, W. ; Prins, S. ; Smolders, K. ; van Eck, S. ; Winkler, J.


published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 526, pp. A69 (2011)

Abstract: The HERMES high-resolution spectrograph project aims at exploiting the specific potential of small but flexible telescopes in observational astrophysics. The optimised optical design of the spectrograph is based on the well-proven concept of white-pupil beam folding for high-resolution spectroscopy. In this contribution we present the complete project, including the spectrograph design and procurement details, the telescope adaptor and calibration unit, the detector system, as well as the optimised data-reduction pipeline. We present a detailed performance analysis to show that the spectrograph performs as specified both in optical quality and in total efficiency. With a spectral resolution of 85 000 (63 000 for the low-resolution fibre), a spectral coverage from 377 to 900 nm in a single exposure and a peak efficiency of 28%, HERMES proves to be an ideal instrument for building up time series of high-quality data of variable (stellar) phenomena. Based on observations made with the Mercator Telescope, operated on the island of La Palma by the Flemish Community, at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.

DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201015435
Links: link


The record appears in these collections:
Royal Observatory of Belgium > Astronomy & Astrophysics
Science Articles > Peer Reviewed Articles



 Record created 2016-07-01, last modified 2022-09-20