The NEID port adapter: on-sky performance

Year: 2022

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: Here we detail the on-sky performance of the NEID Port Adapter one year into full science operation at the WIYN 3.5m Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. NEID is an optical (380-930 nm), fiber-fed, precision Doppler radial velocity system developed as part of the NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research (NN-EXPLORE) partnership. The NEID Port Adapter mounts directly to a bent-Cassegrain port on the WIYN Telescope and is responsible for precisely and stably placing target light on the science fibers. Precision acquisition and guiding is a critical component of such extreme precision spectrographs. In this work, we describe key on-sky performance results compared to initial design requirements and error budgets. While the current Port Adapter performance is more than sufficient for the NEID system to achieve and indeed exceed its formal instrumental radial velocity precision requirements, we continue to characterize and further optimize its performance and efficiency. This enables us to obtain better NEID datasets and in some cases, improve the performance of key terms in the error budget needed for future extreme precision spectrographs with the goal of observing ExoEarths, requiring ∼ 10 cm/s radial velocity measurements.

Source: Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IX

DOI: 10.1117/12.2629004

Institutions: NSF NOIRLab, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Goddard Space Flight Center, Macquarie University, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University, California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Language: English

Topic: Astronomy and Astrophysical Research

Subfield: Instrumentation

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

OpenAlex ID: W4293452427