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echelle spectrograph for 61-inch Wyeth telescope
Date: 1979
Inventory Number: 2023-1-0007
Classification: Spectrograph
Subject:
Maker: David W. Latham (born 1940)
Maker: Harvard College Observatory (founded 1839)
Maker: Fred L. Whipple (1906 - 2004)
User: Oak Ridge Station (1931 - 2005)
User: George R. Agassiz Station, Harvard (1951 - 1982)
User: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (founded 1890)
Associate Name: Stuart Wyeth (1862 - 1929)
Cultural Region:
Place of Origin:
City of Use:
Accessories: filters, slit eyepiece, Hartman mask, micrometers
Description:
Echelle spectrograph was found in a wooden crate with various accessories in small boxes or plastic bags.
The boxes were labeled " MMT Echelle Spectrograph" with other designations such as filters, Hartman mask, micrometers, slit eyepiece, and so forth. Being acidic, the boxes were replaced by acid-free archival containers.
A piece of paper had this text: MMT triple / motorized micrometer / controller / Shipped to Whipple / 01 MARCH 2005.
Another yellow paper had a message from Fred Whipple to Dave Latham: Dave: Here is a 2.5 arcsec hole aperture plate for the echell for which stacker pieces are being fabricated. Store it in some safe place. We'll need it in about March. Fred
The boxes were labeled " MMT Echelle Spectrograph" with other designations such as filters, Hartman mask, micrometers, slit eyepiece, and so forth. Being acidic, the boxes were replaced by acid-free archival containers.
A piece of paper had this text: MMT triple / motorized micrometer / controller / Shipped to Whipple / 01 MARCH 2005.
Another yellow paper had a message from Fred Whipple to Dave Latham: Dave: Here is a 2.5 arcsec hole aperture plate for the echell for which stacker pieces are being fabricated. Store it in some safe place. We'll need it in about March. Fred
Signedunsigned
Historical AttributesThis echelle spectrograph was used on the 61-inch Wyeth reflector at Oak Ridge Observatory to study radial velocities of stars.
The echelle spectrograph was built in 1979. In 1984, Harvard astronomer David W. Latham was approached by an Israeli astronomer Tsevi Mazeh to use it to look for short-period, massive planets around solar-type stars with radial velocities. They began an observing program. In 1988, Latham and a team of astronomers (including Tsevi Mazeh, Robert P. Stefanik) using the echelle spectrograph with the telescope detected a wobble in HD114762., which indicated that the star had an unseen companion. Hesitant to declare that the companion was an extra solar planet, they announced in Nature their discovery of a brown dwarf or giant planet. This was the first observation of an exoplanet.
The echelle spectrograph was built in 1979. In 1984, Harvard astronomer David W. Latham was approached by an Israeli astronomer Tsevi Mazeh to use it to look for short-period, massive planets around solar-type stars with radial velocities. They began an observing program. In 1988, Latham and a team of astronomers (including Tsevi Mazeh, Robert P. Stefanik) using the echelle spectrograph with the telescope detected a wobble in HD114762., which indicated that the star had an unseen companion. Hesitant to declare that the companion was an extra solar planet, they announced in Nature their discovery of a brown dwarf or giant planet. This was the first observation of an exoplanet.
Primary SourcesDavid W. Latham, Tsevi Mazeh, Robert P. Stefanik, Michel Mayor, and Gilbert Burki, "The unseen companion of HD114762: a probable brown dwarf," Nature 339, issue 6219 (1989): 38-40.
ADS Bibcode: 1989Natur.339...38L
https://doi.org/10.1038/339038a0
Interview of David Latham by David DeVorkin on 2006 October 8, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA, www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/33561
ADS Bibcode: 1989Natur.339...38L
https://doi.org/10.1038/339038a0
Interview of David Latham by David DeVorkin on 2006 October 8, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA, www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/33561
ProvenanceOak Ridge Observatory, Harvard, MA, building #6; transfer to CHSI, 2023.