Year: 2010
Type: preprint
Abstract: We recently commissioned the polarimetric upgrade of the HARPS spectrograph at ESO's 3.6-m telescope at La Silla, Chile. The HARPS polarimeter is capable of full Stokes spectropolarimetry with large sensitivity and accuracy, taking advantage of the large spectral resolution and stability of HARPS. In this paper we present the instrument design and its polarimetric performance. The first HARPSpol observations show that it can attain a polarimetric sensitivity of ~10^-5 (after addition of many lines) and that no significant instrumental polarization effects are present.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Language: English
Subfield: Instrumentation
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1613930491
