A friend and fellow engineer who has now been at the Australian Astronomical
Observatory (AAO) for nearly three decades was describing over lunch on Sunday
the observatory's latest instrument which begun commissioning this past few
days.
HERMES is a High Efficiency and Resolution Multi-Element Spectrograph designed
for the AAT 3.9m.
It can provide simultaneous observations in the following bands -
Blue: 471.8 - 490.3 nm
Green: 564.9 - 587.3 nm
Red: 648.1 - 673.9 nm
IR: 759.0 - 789.0 nm
The CCD detectors are 4096 x 4112 and operate at 170K.
It is arguably the most sophisticated spectrograph ever built for a telescope.
The primary science project HERMES is to be employed on is the GALactic
Archeology with HERMES (GALAH) survey. When used in conjunction with the
existing AAT two-degree field (2dF) optical fibre positioner, HERMES will
provide simultaneous spectra for 400 objects in four bands.
GALAH will obtain precise radial velocities and abundances of over 15 different
chemical elements per star for over a million stars.
The resulting data sets will hopefully yield a detailed view of the formation and
evolution of the Galaxy.
Interested readers can learn more about GALAH here -
http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/galah/home.html
You can also read more about the HERMES instrument here -
http://www.aao.gov.au/HERMES/
The AAO documented the HERMES assembly, integration and test phases
with a time-lapse camera and you can watch that here -
http://www.aao.gov.au/HERMES/hermeslo.mov
In the video, after assembling the instrument here in Sydney, you will then see it
being disassembled so that it could be transported to Sidings Springs.
Congratulations to all involved at the AAO, good luck with the commissioning
and good luck to the GALAH survey team.
Best Regards
Gary Kopff
Wildcard Innovations Pty Ltd
Mount Kuring-Gai NSW 2080
