The UHRF: Spectral resolution to the limit

Francisco Diego, Ian A. Crawford, Michael J. Barlow, Adrian C. Fish, Mark Dryburgh, David Brooks, Jason Spyromilio, Ian D. Howarth, David D. Walker

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Until recently the study of cool clouds of insterstellar matter had been limited by the relatively low spectral resolutions provided by extisting spectrographs. The Ultra-High-Resolution Facility (UHRF) recently commissioned at the Anglo-Australian Telescope has changed dramatically this panorama by delivering for the first time resolutions approaching one million, near the diffraction limit of the largest échelle gratings available. The instrument shares the east coudé room with the University College London Échelle Spectrograph (UCLES), in what is now one of the most powerful spectrographic installations worldwide. This contribution describes the characteristics of the UHRF, including its design, manufacture, testing and commissioning. The UHRF incorporates a novel image slicer (described elsewhere in these proceedings), which allows ultra-high-resolution observations on faint objects. Astrophysical results from the first observing runs are presented to demonstrate the UHRF performance in both resolution and throughput.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInstrumentation in Astronomy VIII
EditorsDavid L. Crawford, Eric R. Craine
PublisherSPIE
Pages274-288
Number of pages15
Volume2198
ISBN (Print)9780819414939, 081941493X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 1994
Externally publishedYes
Event1994 Symposium on Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation for the 21st Century: Instrumentation in Astronomy VIII - Kailua, United States
Duration: 13 Mar 199418 Mar 1994
Conference number: 8

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
PublisherSPIE
Volume2198
ISSN (Print)0277-786X
ISSN (Electronic)1996-756X

Conference

Conference1994 Symposium on Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation for the 21st Century
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityKailua
Period13/03/9418/03/94

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