Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T14:46:02.155Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Coudé Auxiliary Feed for the AAT: a Focus for International Co-operation in Optical Astronomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

P. Gillingham
Affiliation:
Anglo-Australian Telescope, Coonabarabran NSW 2357
M. Pettini
Affiliation:
Anglo-Australian Telescope, Coonabarabran NSW 2357
M. Bessell
Affiliation:
Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories, Private Bag, Weston ACT 2611
L. Cram
Affiliation:
School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006
K. Ogura
Affiliation:
Kokugakuin University, Tokyo, Japan

Abstract

In 1988, a very powerful and versatile coudé echelle spectrograph was installed at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. Since then it has been winning about 30% of AAT time and has been highly productive scientifically. Therefore, using a coudé auxiliary telescope (CAT) to give the spectrograph more use and to free the AAT for other work is a very attractive possibility, particularly if the CAT can give a sensitivity similar to that obtained with the 3.9-metre telescope. While a conventional CAT with such performance would be very expensive, a much cheaper instrument should approach this goal, at least for high resolution spectroscopy. Even so, the cost could not be met in a reasonable time within the AAO’s budget; hence, additional international collaboration is being sought.

Type
Instruments & Facilities
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Gillingham, P. R., 1989, Astrophys. Space Sci., 160, 225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillingham, P. R., 1990, “The Merits of Inertial Drives for Ground-based Optical Telescopes”, SPIE Conference 1236: Advanced Technology Optical Telescopes IV.Google Scholar