The Carnegie Planet Finder Spectrograph is used with the Magellan II
(Clay) Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. Its
primary scientific objective is the detection of extrasolar planets
through monitoring of stellar radial velocity variations. The
spectrograph has been optimized for high precision measurement of
these velocities with a resolution goal of 1 m/s. The optical design
includes all spherical, standard optical glass and calcium fluoride
lenses that function as both camera and collimator in a double-pass
configuration. A prism cross-disperser is also used in double-pass and
provides a minimum order separation of 4.0 arcsec. An R4 echelle grating
is illuminated near true Littrow and provides complete wavelength
coverage between 390 nm and 660 nm. Spectral resolution is 38,000
when using a 1 arcsec slit, although slit widths as small as 0.2 arcsec
are available. An iodine cell is used to superimpose well-defined
absorption features onto spectra to aid with stellar radial velocity
measurements, and a Thorium Argon lamp is available for traditional
wavelength calibrations.
2008 SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation meeting:
Manuscript and
Poster
2006 SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation meeting:
Manuscript and
Poster
Contact: Jeff Crane,
Steve Shectman,
Ian Thompson, or
Paul Butler.
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