First light results from the Hermes spectrograph at the AAT

Andrew Sheinis; Sam Barden; Michael Birchall; Daniela Carollo; Joss Bland-Hawthorn; Jurek Brzeski; Scott Case; Russell Cannon; Vladimir Churilov; Warrick Couch; Robert Dean; Gayandhi De Silva; Valentina D'Orazi; Tony Farrell; Kristin Fiegert; Kenneth Freeman; Gabriella Frost; Luke Gers; Michael Goodwin; Doug Gray; Ron Heald; Jeroen Heijmans; Damien Jones; Stephan Keller; Urs Klauser; Yuriy Kondrat; Jon Lawrence; Steve Lee; Slavko Mali; Sarah Martell; Darren Mathews; Don Mayfield; Stan Miziarski; Rolf Muller; Naveen Pai; Robert Patterson; Ed Penny; David Orr; Keith Shortridge; Jeffrey Simpson; Scott Smedley; Greg Smith; Darren Stafford; Nicholas Staszak; Minh Vuong; Lewis Waller; Elizabeth Wylie de Boer; Pascal Xavier; Jessica Zheng; Ross Zhelem; Daniel Zucker

doi:10.1117/12.2055595

8 July 2014 First light results from the Hermes spectrograph at the AAT

Andrew Sheinis, Sam Barden, Michael Birchall, Daniela Carollo, Joss Bland-Hawthorn, Jurek Brzeski, Scott Case, Russell Cannon, Vladimir Churilov, Warrick Couch, Robert Dean, Gayandhi De Silva, Valentina D'Orazi, Tony Farrell, Kristin Fiegert, Kenneth Freeman, Gabriella Frost, Luke Gers, Michael Goodwin, Doug Gray, Ron Heald, Jeroen Heijmans, Damien Jones, Stephan Keller, Urs Klauser, Yuriy Kondrat, Jon Lawrence, Steve Lee, Slavko Mali, Sarah Martell, Darren Mathews, Don Mayfield, Stan Miziarski, Rolf Muller, Naveen Pai, Robert Patterson, Ed Penny, David Orr, Keith Shortridge, Jeffrey Simpson, Scott Smedley, Greg Smith, Darren Stafford, Nicholas Staszak, Minh Vuong, Lewis Waller, Elizabeth Wylie de Boer, Pascal Xavier, Jessica Zheng, Ross Zhelem, Daniel Zucker

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9147, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V; 91470Y (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2055595
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2014, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

The High Efficiency and Resolution Multi Element Spectrograph, HERMES is an facility-class optical spectrograph for the AAT. It is designed primarily for Galactic Archeology [21], the first major attempt to create a detailed understanding of galaxy formation and evolution by studying the history of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. 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. The spectrograph is based at the Anglo Australian Telescope (AAT) and is fed by the existing 2dF robotic fiber 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 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. Hermes has been commissioned over 3 runs, during bright time in October, November and December 2013, in parallel with the beginning of the GALAH Pilot survey starting in November 2013. In this paper we present the first-light results from the commissioning run and the beginning of the GALAH Survey, including performance results such as throughput and resolution, as well as instrument reliability. We compare the abundance calculations from the pilot survey to those in the literature.

Citation Download Citation

Andrew Sheinis, Sam Barden, Michael Birchall, Daniela Carollo, Joss Bland-Hawthorn, Jurek Brzeski, Scott Case, Russell Cannon, Vladimir Churilov, Warrick Couch, Robert Dean, Gayandhi De Silva, Valentina D'Orazi, Tony Farrell, Kristin Fiegert, Kenneth Freeman, Gabriella Frost, Luke Gers, Michael Goodwin, Doug Gray, Ron Heald, Jeroen Heijmans, Damien Jones, Stephan Keller, Urs Klauser, Yuriy Kondrat, Jon Lawrence, Steve Lee, Slavko Mali, Sarah Martell, Darren Mathews, Don Mayfield, Stan Miziarski, Rolf Muller, Naveen Pai, Robert Patterson, Ed Penny, David Orr, Keith Shortridge, Jeffrey Simpson, Scott Smedley, Greg Smith, Darren Stafford, Nicholas Staszak, Minh Vuong, Lewis Waller, Elizabeth Wylie de Boer, Pascal Xavier, Jessica Zheng, Ross Zhelem, and Daniel Zucker "First light results from the Hermes spectrograph at the AAT", Proc. SPIE 9147, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V, 91470Y (8 July 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2055595

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available