[ASA] HERMES achieves first light

[Warrick Couch]

Dear colleagues:

I am very pleased to report that on 19 October (2013), after more than 5 years in the making, the 
AAO's High Efficiency and Resolution Multi-Element Spectrograph (HERMES) saw its first
light on the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope.

HERMES is a A$12M investment in the future of Australian astronomy, being a facility class instrument
that will be available for all AAT users. Together with the existing 2dF positioning system, HERMES
will provide Australian astronomers with the unique opportunity to carry out multi-object spectroscopy
of up to 392 objects at high spectral resolution. No such facility is currently available on any other
optical telescope!

The first stellar observations with HERMES were of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, a well known
southern hemisphere target. The data collected in 2 arcsec seeing conditions demonstrated that 
in an exposure time of 1 hour, HERMES provides a signal-to-noise ratio of 100 per resolution
element at the following magnitude limits:

B = 14.2   in the blue HERMES band  
V = 13.8   in the green  HERMES band  
R = 14.0  in the red  HERMES band  
I =  13.8    in the infrared  HERMES band  

In median seeing  of 1.5 arc sec, we can expect the count rates to be a factor of ~1.2 higher.

HERMES was also found to deliver an average spectral resolution of R ~ 28,000 across the
detector for the nominal resolution mode. A higher resolution mask mode will be commissioned
in the upcoming commissioning runs in November and December, which will also include more
detailed tests to characterise the full functionality of HERMES.

I will provide further updates on progress towards HERMES being fully commissioned, and
more detailed information will also be made available on the AAO website (www.aao.gov.au)
and in the AAO Observer.

Regards,
Warrick Couch
(AAO Director)

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Professor Warrick Couch                                    Phone: +61 2 9372 4811
Director, Australian Astronomical Observatory   Fax: +61 2 9372 4880
P.O. Box 915, North Ryde, NSW 1760  Email: warrick.couch at aao.gov.au
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