As part of GRACES (Gemini Remote Access to CFHT ESPaDOnS Spectrograph), a project to link the Gemini-North telescope to the ESPaDOnS (Echelle Polarimetric Device for the Observation of Stars) spectrograph at CFHT (Canada- France-Hawaii Telescope), the original thermal enclosure of the spectrograph needed to be modified. Although the modifications were slight, there was a significant possibility that the thermal stability of ESPaDOnS would be somewhat compromised. To eliminate this risk, a walk-in thermal enclosure was purchased and installed around the ESPaDOnS spectrograph as part of the GRACES project. The thermal impact of these modifications to the ESPaDOnS environment will be analyzed and the effect of the changes on the amplitude and behavior of the spectral drift for the ESPaDOnS and GRACES instruments will be examined. While the outer enclosure has reduced the extremes in thermal variation, this has not had a direct effect on the stability of the spectra.

Date Published: 9 August 2016
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 9908, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI, 990860 (9 August 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2231021

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9908:
Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI
Christopher J. Evans; Luc Simard; Hideki Takami, Editor(s)