CHIRON

CHIRON is a highly stable cross-dispersed echelle spectrometer at the SMARTS 1.5-meter telescope. It is fed by fiber and intended primarily for precise radial velocities.

• Spectral resolution R~80000 (with image slicer: normal or Iodine mode) or R~25000 (fiber mode) or R~140000 (narrow-slit, bright stars), 3-pixel sampling
• Spectral range 410-870 nm, fixed
• Total efficiency ~6%

CHIRON is operational since 2011B. After upgrade, it is back in service since March 2012.
CHIRON replaces the previous spectrometer at 1.5m, FIBER ECHELLE

Software Documentation

• CHIRON Quick software troubleshooting guide (January 31, 2011) [PDF, 0.6M]
• CHIRON GUI User's Manual (July 2015) [PDF, 1.3M]
• Administrator's Manual. Software Architecture (July 2015) [PDF, 1M]
• PanView configuration (August 2011) [PDF, 884K]
• CHIRON scripting reference (January 2011) [PDF, 858K]
• CTIO 60 inches CHIRTEMP (CHIRON) (January 2012) [PDF, 1.2M] 
• CHIRON basic data reduction (October 26, 2011)  [PDF, 573K]
• F. Walter's data reduction package for CHIRON.

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Technical Documents & Memos

• Recovery of the stuck slicer motor (Aug 15, 2015) [PDF, 185K]
• Exposure meter description (July 27, 2015) [PDF, 183K]
• New CHIRON shutter (Sep. 9, 2013)  [PDF, 508kB]
• Efficiency measurements:  August 1, 2013  and June 12, 2012
• CHIRON guider (April 18, 2013) [PDF]
• CHIRON temperature control (June 14, 2012) [PDF]
• Performance of the CHIRON CCD detector with the Torrent
  controller (April 3, 2012) [PDF, 550KB]
• CHIRON efficiency tests (June 15, 2011) [PDF, 1.2MB]
• CHIRON CCD detector: tests in March 2011 (March 28, 2011) [PDF, 1.1MB]
• CHIRON efficiency (March 28, 2011) [PDF, 278KB]
• Commissioning run: March 9-14, 2011 by D. Fischer & M. Giguere (March 15, 2011) [PDF, 2.8MB]
• Instrument manual (V.2, May 25, 2011) [PDF, 801kB]
• CHIRON instrument description (V.2, May 6, 2011) [PDF, 3.4MB]
• CHIRON in pictures by AJ Riggs (Jan 23 2011) [PDF, 8M]
• CHIRON: Commissioning tests and alignment by J. Spronck, Ch. Schwab, M. Giguere (Feb 7, 2011) [PDF, 367K]

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Electronics

• Hardware connections description (June 2012) [PDF, 1M]
• CHIRON Motor Control (January 31, 2011) [PDF, 1.9M]
• CCD temperature control (June 2011) [PDF, 1M]
• Comparison lamp automation (March 16, 2011) [PDF, 784KB] and schematics
• Guider camera and PC instructions (October 2, 2008) (text)
• Electronic schemes:
  Electronic box on the telescope
  RTD temperature sensors and iodine cell motor
  CHIRON focus and slicer motor control
• Access Enclosure temperature controller (Omega)
• Zemax file sp4fb.zmx

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Papers on CHIRON

• Schwab, Ch., Spronck, J., Tokovinin, A., Szymkowiak, A., Giguere, M., Fisher, D. Performance of the CHIRON high-resolution Echelle spectrograph. 2012, Proc. SPIE, 8446, paper 8446-9. [PDF, 1.6M]
• Spronck, J., Schwab, C., Tokovinin, A., Giguere, M., Szymkowiak, A., Fischer, D. Chiron - A Fiber-fed High-resolution Echelle Spectrometer At CTIO 1.5m Telescope May 2011, AAS Meeting #218, #409.03 [PDF, 12M]
• Schwab C., Spronck J.F.P., Tokovinin A., Fischer D. Design of the CHIRON high-resolution spectrometer at CTIO 2010, Proc. SPIE, 7735, paper 7735-159 [PDF, 1.3M]
• Tokovinin A., Fischer D., Schwab, Ch., Spronck J.F.P. CHIRON - new planet-finding spectrometer. Presentation at the conference Astronomy of Exoplanets with Precise Radial Velocities, PSU, Aug 16-19 2010 , [PDF, 885K]
• Tokovinin, A., Fischer, D.A., Bonati, M., Giguere, M.J., Moore, P., Schwab, Ch., Spronck, J. F. P., Szymkowiak, A. CHIRON - A Fiber Fed Spectrometer for Precise Radial Velocities. 2013, PASP, 125, 1336  [PDF, 1.1M]
• Brewer, J. M., Giguere, M., Fischer, D. A. CHIRON TOOLS: Integrated Target Submission, Scheduling and Observing Systems for a High-Resolution Fiber-Fed Spectrograph. 2014, PASP, 126,  48

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Refereed publications using CHIRON data

• Ingleby, L., Calvet, N., Herczeg, G. et al. 2013, ApJ, 767, A112
• Ratajczak, M., Helminiak, K. G., Konacki, M. & Jordan, A. 2013, MNRAS, 433, 2357
• Shore, S. N., De Gennaro Aquino, I.,  Schwarz, G. J. et al. 2013, A&A, 553, A123
• Tokovinin, A. 2013, AJ, 145, 76
• Shivvers, I., Bloom, J. S., Richards, J. W. 2014, MNRAS, 441, 343
• Surina, F., et al. 2014, AJ, 147, 107
• Jones, M. I., Jenkins, J. S., Bluhm, P. et al. 2014, A&A., 566, 113
• Jones, M. I., Jenkins, J. S., Rojo, P. et al. 2015A&A...573A...3J
• Soto, M.G., Jenkins, J.S., Jones, M.I. 2015, MNRAS, 451, 3131
• Bowler, B.P., Shkolnik, E.L., Liu, M.C. et al. 2015, ApJS, 806, 62
• Waisberg, I.R., Romani, R.W. 2015, ApJ, 805, 18
• Mennickent, R.E., Djurasevic, G., Cabezas, M. et al. 2015, MNRAS, 448, 1137
• Mehner, A., Davidson, K., Humphreys, R.M. et al. 2015, A&A, 578, 122
• Jones, M., Jenkins, J. et al. 2015, A&A, 580, 14
• Hinkel, N.R. et al. 2015, AJ, 150, 169
• Tokovinin, A. 2015, AJ, 150, 177
• Berta-Thompson, Z. K.; Irwin, J., Charbonneau, D. et al. 2015Natur.527..204B
• Richardson, N.D.  Gies, D. R.,  Gull,  T. R., Moffat,  A. F. J. &  St-Jean,  L.   2015,  AJ,   150,  109
• Munari, F. & Walter, F. 2016, MNRAS, 455, L57
• Richardson, N.D. et al. 2016, MNRAS, 455, 244
• Richardson, N. D., Madura, T. I., St-Jean, L. et al.  2016MNRAS.461.2540R
• Gullikson, K. Kraus, A., Dodson-Robinson, S. Jaffe, D. et al.  2016, AJ, 151, 3
• Bond, H.E., Ciardullo, R., Siegel, M.H. 2016, AJ, 151, 40
• Fischer, D.A. et al. 2016, PASP, 128, 6001
• Giguere, M.J. et al. 2016, ApJ, 824, 150
• Teodoro, M. et al. 2016, ApJ, 819, 131
• Tokovinin, A. 2016, AJ, 152, 11
• Tokovinin, A. 2016, AJ, 152, 10
• Gullikson, K., Kraus, A., Dodson-Robinson, S. 2016, AJ, 152, 40
• Jones, M. I., Jenkins, J. S., Brahm, R. et al. 2016, A&A, 590, 38
• Johnson, M. C., Endl, M. Cochran, W. D. et al. 2016ApJ...821...74J
• Bluhm, P., Jones, M. I., Vanzi, L. et al. 2016, A&A, 593, 133
• Ratajczak, M. et al. 2016, MNRAS, 461, 2234
• Schaefer, G. H., Hummel, C. A., Gies, D. R. et al. 2016AJ....152..213S
• Lester, K. V., Gies, D. R., Guo, Zhao  2016AJ....152..194L
• Kane, S. R.; Wittenmyer, R. A., Hinkel, N. R. et al. 2016ApJ...821...65K
• Richardson, N. D.; Russell, C. M. P.; St-Jean, L. et al. 2017MNRAS.471.2715R
• Buysschaert, B., Neiner, C., Richardson, N. D. et al. 2017A&A...602A..91B
• Linford, J. D., Chomiuk, L., Nelson, T. et al. 2017ApJ...842...73L
• Buysschaert, B., Neiner, C., Richardson, N. D. et al. 2017A&A...602A..91B
• Jones, M. I., Brahm, R., Wittenmyer, R. A. et al. 2017A&A...602A..58J
• Mayer, P., Harmanec, P., Chini, R. et al.  2017A&A...600A..33M
• Tokovinin, A., Latham, D. W. 2017ApJ...838...54T
• Li, C.-J., Chu, Y.-H., Gruendl, R. A. et al. 2017ApJ...836...85L
• Wittenmyer, R. A.; Jones, M. I., Zhao, J. et al. 2017AJ....153...51W
• Khokhlov, S. A., Miroshnichenko, A. S., Mennickent, R. et al. 2017ApJ...835...53K

The design and construction of CHIRON was supported by the National Science Foundation under the ARRA AST-0923441. 

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