RSAA Colloquia / Seminars / Feast-of-Facts: Friday, 06 March 2015, 14:20-14:40; Duffield Lecture Theatre


Michael Ireland

"Progress on the Gemini High-resolution Optical SpecTrograph (GHOST)"

The next large instrument on a Gemini telescope, GHOST, is being built by a collaboration including AAO, ANU and NRC-Herzberg. It aims to be a high efficiency fiber fed Echelle spectrograph with a wide wavelength range. I will describe the design’s background, including lenslet-based image slicing that reduces slit losses while maintaining high resolution, and why despite cost constraints, the spectrograph has several modes, including a precision radial velocity mode and a two object mode. I will show simulated data from the unusual spectral format, and describe the work from here in the critical/final design phase.