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Published 1988 | public
Book Section - Chapter

Multiple Object Spectroscopy

Abstract

We review current techniques for multiple object spectroscopy and discuss the new automated fibre positioner, AUTOFIB, recently commissioned on the AAT. We contrast the advantages and disadvantages of fibre optic couplers and multislit devices, especially at faint limits. Fibres offer large multiplex gains but spatial fluctuations in the sky background ultimately limit the precision to which sky subtraction can be done. We discuss a new widefield spectrograph that combines the sky subtraction advantages of slit work whilst maintaining the large multiobject capability of fibre optic couplers.

Additional Information

© 1988 Springer-Verlag New York Inc. The results described summarise the work and findings of many observers and technical researchers at the AAT, LPO and within UK universities. Peter Gray deserves major credit for the success of the FOCAP system; he has also played a vital role in many of the design aspects of AUTOFIB. Ray Sharples, Warrick Couch and John Lucey have contributed significantly toward understanding how to reduce fibre data. Alan Purvis, Mike Breare and Dave Gellatly helped in constructing and commissioning the LPO multislit unit. Keith Taylor and Richard Hook devised the complex algorithms for acquiring multislit fields with LDSS. Finally we acknowledge the optical expertise of Charles Wynne without whom most of the faint object instrumentation discussed would not have come in to being.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
January 14, 2024