| dc.description.abstract | This work presents PUCHEROS+, a high-resolution echelle spectrograph designed and built in the Centro de Astro-Ingenieria UC (AIUC), and recently installed in the ESO1.52m at La Silla observatory. Spectrographs are widely used instruments in as- tronomy, that work with the principle of dispersion of the light as a way of obtaining information from it, for example, measuring the wavelength shift due to Doppler effect in the spectra of a star (radial velocity), it is posible to detect exoplanets orbiting it.
PUCHEROS+ is an enhanced version of PUCHEROS, the first high-resolution low cost echelle spectrograph developed by the AIUC. Due to its limitations, the instrument is focused on teaching and also research of bright objects. In this new version, and through an opportune investment, improvements were made in the scientific detector and objec- tive; in the calibration system; in the acquisition/guiding system; and in thermal stability, adding two temperature control systems for fine and coarse control. The instrument has reached the performance of spectral resolution of 18000, sampling of 3 pixels, limiting magnitude of about 12 in V Band, spectral range from 400nm to 680nm. Also, thanks to the improvements mentioned and suitable environmental conditions that the telescope provides, the instrument reached a precision on radial velocities of 50 ~ 100m/s, with strong opportunities to keep improving in this matter. This way the instrument proved to be an effective scientific tool in the framework of the PLATOSpec project.
In this work, the instrument and all its related engineering systems will be described in detail, focusing on its improvements with its predecessor. Finally the results of measure- ments of radial velocity are presented, with an analysis about precision. | |
