Precision radial velocities with inexpensive compact spectrographs

Christopher H. Betters; Alex Murray; Joss Bland-Hawthorn; Sergio G. Leon-Saval

doi:10.1117/12.2232126

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4 August 2016 Precision radial velocities with inexpensive compact spectrographs

Christopher H. Betters, Alex Murray, Joss Bland-Hawthorn, Sergio G. Leon-Saval

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Proceedings Volume 9908, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI; 99081B (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232126
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

High-precision astronomical spectrographs routinely employed to detect planets via the radial velocity method are generally large and expensive instruments. We present our progress developing a compact spectrograph using commercial ‘off-the-shelf’ components that can achieve similar precision at a fraction of the cost. The spectrograph, PIMMS Visible, has a resolving power of R-50,000 operating in the visible regime. We are able to obtain RMS velocity precisions of better than ~1 m/s by calibrating with a stabilised single-mode etalon. As a technology proof we attempt to detect the solar 5- minute period p-mode oscillations (a few m/s signal).

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Christopher H. Betters, Alex Murray, Joss Bland-Hawthorn, and Sergio G. Leon-Saval "Precision radial velocities with inexpensive compact spectrographs", Proc. SPIE 9908, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI, 99081B (4 August 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232126

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