Astronomical spectrographs and their history

Cover......Page 1
Frontmatter......Page 2
Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 10
Acknowledgements......Page 12
1.1 Colour, refrangibility and wavelength......Page 14
1.2 The collimator in prism spectroscopes......Page 15
1.3 Some notable astronomical prism spectroscopes of the mid nineteenth century......Page 16
1.4 Improvements in prism spectroscope design in the later nineteenth century......Page 18
1.5 The development of the prism spectrograph......Page 24
1.6 The development of the diffraction grating......Page 30
1.7 Grating mountings for laboratory and astronomical spectrographs......Page 37
1.8 Early grating spectroscopes and spectrographs......Page 42
1.9 Prism spectrographs in the twentieth century......Page 49
References......Page 54
2.2 The spectrograph figure of merit......Page 58
2.3 Resolving power and throughput of prism instruments......Page 60
2.4 Resolving power and throughput of diffraction grating spectrographs......Page 67
2.5 Cameras and detectors: some simple requirements......Page 72
2.6 Grating efficiency, shadowing and the quasi-Littrow angle......Page 75
2.7 Gratings not illuminated in the normal plane......Page 78
2.8 The grism as a dispersing element......Page 79
2.9 Some miscellaneous aspects of spectrograph design......Page 80
2.10 Some general principles of spectrograph design......Page 81
References......Page 82
3.1 Theory of the coudé spectrograph......Page 84
3.2 History of the coudé spectrograph......Page 85
3.3 Theory of the échelle spectrograph......Page 93
3.4 Historical development of échelle spectrographs......Page 98
References......Page 105
4.1 Spectroscopy of the solar chromosphere......Page 108
4.2 The measurement of solar spectrum wavelengths......Page 113
4.3 Henry Rowland and the concave grating......Page 115
4.5 Hale and Deslandres and the spectroheliograph......Page 117
4.6 Hale and the dedicated solar spectrograph and observatory......Page 125
4.7 Further developments in solar spectrographs and telescopes......Page 129
4.8 The work of Francis and Robert McMath......Page 132
4.9 New innovations in solar spectroscopy, 1940--1965......Page 133
References......Page 147
5.1 Theory of the objective prism spectrograph......Page 151
5.2 The history of objective prism spectroscopy......Page 154
References......Page 170
6.1 Ultraviolet and nebular spectroscopy......Page 173
6.2 Ultraviolet spectroscopy from above the Earth's atmosphere......Page 180
References......Page 193
7.2 Aperture plate multi-object spectroscopy......Page 195
7.3 Multi-object spectroscopy using optical fibres and aperture plates......Page 196
7.4 Multi-object spectroscopy with automated fibre positioning......Page 201
References......Page 204
8.2 The ESO faint object spectrograph and camera: EFOSC......Page 206
8.3 The Keck High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer: HIRES......Page 207
8.4 The Keck Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer: LRIS......Page 211
8.5 ELODIE at Haute-Provence......Page 212
8.6 The 2dF spectrographs at the Anglo-Australian telescope......Page 214
8.7 The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph: STIS......Page 216
8.8 The Ultraviolet Echelle Spectrograph at ESO Paranal: UVES......Page 217
8.9 The Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectrographs......Page 219
8.10 The Hercules spectrograph at Mt John......Page 221
8.11 HARPS, the high accuracy radial-velocity planet searcher......Page 222
References......Page 223
Figure sources and acknowledgements......Page 225
Name index......Page 231
Subject index......Page 234