Performance verification of HARPS: first laboratory results

Francesco Pepe; Gero Rupprecht; Gerardo Avila; Andrea Balestra; Francois Bouchy; Cyril Cavadore; Wolfgang Eckert; Michel Fleury; Alain Gillotte; Domingo Gojak; Juan Carlos Guzman; Dominique Kohler; Jean-Luis Lizon; Michel Mayor; Denis Megevand; Didier Queloz; Danuta Sosnowska; Stephane Udry; Ueli Weilenmann

doi:10.1117/12.460777

7 March 2003 Performance verification of HARPS: first laboratory results

Francesco Pepe, Gero Rupprecht, Gerardo Avila, Andrea Balestra, Francois Bouchy, Cyril Cavadore, Wolfgang Eckert, Michel Fleury, Alain Gillotte, Domingo Gojak, Juan Carlos Guzman, Dominique Kohler, Jean-Luis Lizon, Michel Mayor, Denis Megevand, Didier Queloz, Danuta Sosnowska, Stephane Udry, Ueli Weilenmann

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 4841, Instrument Design and Performance for Optical/Infrared Ground-based Telescopes; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.460777
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2002, Waikoloa, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

The high-resolution spectrograph HARPS (High-Accuracy Radial-velocity Planet Searcher) will be installed on the 3.6m telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory towards the end of 2002 and offered to the astronomical community by mid-2003. Assembly and integration of the instrument took place at the Geneva Observatory, Switzerland, during Spring 2002. At present, the verification of the system performance is in progress and is already in an advanced phase. We present in this paper the first results of our laboratory tests and describe various performance figures. We stress the outstanding mechanical and thermal stability of the instrument which are crucial for accurate radial velocity measurements. We also give a description of the simultaneous ThAr-reference technique which ensures an overall efficiency 6 times higher than with an the iodine cell absorption method. The combination of the high instrumental stability with the simultaneous ThAr-reference technique provides HARPS with characteristics highly adapted for accurate radial-velocity determination at the level of 1 ms^-1. These make our instrument suitable for the detection of planetary systems and of extra-solar planets with sub-saturnian mass.

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Francesco Pepe, Gero Rupprecht, Gerardo Avila, Andrea Balestra, Francois Bouchy, Cyril Cavadore, Wolfgang Eckert, Michel Fleury, Alain Gillotte, Domingo Gojak, Juan Carlos Guzman, Dominique Kohler, Jean-Luis Lizon, Michel Mayor, Denis Megevand, Didier Queloz, Danuta Sosnowska, Stephane Udry, and Ueli Weilenmann "Performance verification of HARPS: first laboratory results", Proc. SPIE 4841, Instrument Design and Performance for Optical/Infrared Ground-based Telescopes, (7 March 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.460777

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