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Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto

Optical design of the ESPRESSO spectrograph at VLT

P. Spanò, D. Mégevand, J.-M. Herreros, F. M. Zerbi, A. Cabral, P. Di Marcantonio, C. Lovis, S. Cristiani, R. Rebolo López, N. C. Santos, F. Pepe

Abstract
ESPRESSO, a very high-resolution, high-efficiency, ultra-high stability, fiber-fed, cross-dispersed echelle spectrograph located in the Combined-Coud focus of the VLT, has been designed to detect exo-planets with unprecedented radial velocity accuracies of 10 cm/sec over 20 years period. To increase spectral resolution, an innovative pupil slicing technique has been adopted, based onto free-form optics. Anamorphism has been added to increase resolution while keeping the physical size of the echelle grating within reasonable limits. Anamorphic VPH grisms will help to decrease detector size, while maximizing efficiency and inter-order separation. Here we present a summary of the optical design of the spectrograph and of expected performances.

Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy III
(Eds.) Ian S. McLean, Suzanne K. Ramsay, Hideki Takami

SPIE
Vol. 7735,
2010

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Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences

Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA) is a new but long anticipated research infrastructure with a national dimension. It embodies a bold but feasible vision for the development of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, taking full advantage and fully realizing the potential created by the national membership of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). IA resulted from the merging the two most prominent research units in the field in Portugal: the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) and the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics of the University of Lisbon (CAAUL). It currently hosts more than two-thirds of all active researchers working in Space Sciences in Portugal, and is responsible for an even greater fraction of the national productivity in international ISI journals in the area of Space Sciences. This is the scientific area with the highest relative impact factor (1.65 times above the international average) and the field with the highest average number of citations per article for Portugal.

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