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Abstract

A way to fully exploit the large collecting area of modern 8–10m class telescopes is high resolution spectroscopy. Many astrophysical problems from planetary science to cosmology benefit from spectroscopic observations at the highest resolution currently achievable and would benefit from even higher resolutions. Indeed in the era of 8–10m class telescopes no longer the telescope collecting area but the size of the beam – which is related to the maximum size in which reflection gratings are manufactured – is what mainly limits the resolution. A resolution‐slit product Rφ ≃ 40,000 is the maximum currently provided by a beam of 20 cm illuminating the largest grating mosaics. We present a conceptual design for a spectrograph with Rφ ≃ 80,000, i.e. twice as large as that of existing instruments. Examples of the possible exploitation of such a high Rφ value, including spectropolarimetry and very high resolution (R ∼ 300,000), are discussed in detail. The new concept is illustrated through the specific case of a high resolution spectropolarimeter for the Large Binocular Telescope.

The origin of the early-time optical emission of Swift GRB 080310★

“…Early‐time optical and NIR data were collected using the 60‐cm robotic telescope REM (Zerbi et al 2001; Covino et al 2004) located at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) La Silla Observatory (Chile). The telescope simultaneously feeds, by means of a dichroic, the two focal instruments: REM Infrared Camara (REMIR; Conconi et al 2004), an NIR camera operating in the range 1.0–2.3 μm ( z ′, J , H and K ), and REM Optical Slitless Spectrograph (ROSS; Tosti et al 2004), an optical imager with spectroscopic (slitless) and photometric capabilities ( V , R , I ).…”

Evidence for supernova-synthesized dust from the rising afterglow of GRB 071025 at z∼ 5

“…GRB 071025 also triggered Rapid‐Eye Mount (REM; Zerbi et al 2001), a robotic (Covino et al 2004) telescope located at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Cerro La Silla observatory (Chile). The REM telescope has a Ritchey–Chretien configuration with a 60‐cm f /2.2 primary and an overall f /8 focal ratio in a fast moving alt‐azimuth mount providing two stable Nasmyth focal stations.…”

Testing gamma-ray burst models with the afterglow of GRB 090102

“…Early time optical and NIR data were collected using the 60‐cm robotic telescope REM (Zerbi et al 2001; Covino et al 2004) located at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) La Silla observatory (Chile). The telescope simultaneously feeds, by means of a dichroic, the two focal instruments: REMIR (Conconi et al 2004) a NIR camera, operating in the range 1.0–2.3 μm ( z ′, J , H and K ) and ROSS (REM Optical Slitless Spectrograph; Tosti et al 2004) an optical imager with spectroscopic (slitless) and photometric capabilities ( V , R , I ).…”