Paper 13094-143
The commissioning of the Low-Cost NIR Extended Solar Telescope (LOCNES)
Abstract
LOCNES (LO-Cost NIR Extended Solar telescope) is a solar telescope installed at the TNG (Telescopio Nazionale Galileo) in the Canary Islands. It feeds the Sun’s light into the NIR spectrograph GIANO-B through a 40-m patch of optical fibers. LOCNES has been designed to obtain high signal-to-noise ratio spectra of the Sun as a star with an accurate wavelength calibration through molecular-band cells. This is an entirely new area of investigation that will provide timely results to improve the search of telluric planets with NIR spectrographs such as iSHELL, CARMENES, NIRPS, and GIANO-B. We will extract several disc-integrated activity indicators and average magnetic field measurements for the Sun in the NIR. These parameters will then be correlated with both the RV of the Sun as a star and the resolved images of the solar disc in visible and NIR. Such an approach will allow for a better understanding of the origin of activity-induced RV variations in the two spectral domains and will help in improving the techniques for their corrections. LOCNES has been installed on the outer part of the TNG dome and it started its operation in the 2023 Springtime when we performed the commissioning of the solar telescope. The main results of the commissioning will be highlighted in this paper.
Presenter
INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova (Italy)
Riccardo Claudi was born in Torino (1955-10-5). Graduated in Physics (Laurea 110/110) at Rome University "La Sapienza" (May 1987) with a dissertation on the UV behavior of the dwarf Nova SS Cyg. In 1987 he won a research grant at the IAC (Tenerife Canary Island Spain) and successively, in 1988, he won a position as a graduate Technician at Padova Astronomical Observatory. Since November 2000 he has been Staff Astronomer at the same Observatory. Its research fields are the extrasolar planets and astrobiology, and the instrumentation for achieving data in these fields. He was PM for SARG@TNG and of the IFS of SPHERE@VLT. Further, he was chair of GAPS (Global Architecture of Planetary Systems) and continues as a member of the GAPS board. Now he is the System Engineer of SOXS (Son of X-Shooter), and the PI of LOCNES (LOw Cost Nir Extended Solar telescope).