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 language | English |
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Title of host publication | Instrumentation in Astronomy VIII |
Editors | David L. Crawford, Eric R. Craine |
Publisher | SPIE |
Pages | 274-288 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Volume | 2198 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780819414939, 081941493X |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 1994 |
Externally published | Yes |
Event | 1994 Symposium on Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation for the 21st Century: Instrumentation in Astronomy VIII - Kailua, United States Duration: 13 Mar 1994 → 18 Mar 1994 Conference number: 8 |
Publication series
Name | Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering |
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Publisher | SPIE |
Volume | 2198 |
ISSN (Print) | 0277-786X |
ISSN (Electronic) | 1996-756X |
Conference
Conference | 1994 Symposium on Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation for the 21st Century |
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Country/Territory | United States |
City | Kailua |
Period | 13/03/94 → 18/03/94 |