Category Archives: HPF Hardware

The Camera of HPF

Posted on March 2, 2017 by Samuel Peter Halverson

Introduction: Spectrometer Cameras A spectrometer, as the name implies, records a ‘spectrum’ of an object. This spectrum, in its most basic form, is just a series of images of the instrument entrance aperture (whether it be a star, slit, optical … Continue reading →

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The HPF cryostat test drive: sub-milliKelvin temperature stability

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Paul M Robertson

Background: the need to cool HPF down to 180K One of the most frequently discussed topics on this blog has been the need to enclose the HPF instrument in a stable, cold environment.  Because HPF will observe stars in infrared … Continue reading →

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What to do when your star wanders

Posted on June 30, 2015 by Samuel Peter Halverson

As we’ve mentioned in prior blog posts, high precision Doppler radial velocity (RV) measurements require extraordinarily stable instruments to measure the spectral shifts in the stellar absorption features induced by orbiting planets. How small are these shifts? A 10 cm/s velocity signal, … Continue reading →

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