Spectangular: Disentangling variable spectra

Spectangular is a GUI based software package written in C++ designed for spectral disentangling on the wavelength scale. The code disentangles spectra of SB1 and SB2 systems and can now also be used also for spectra showing variability. In this work, effects of variability caused by telluric lines, line profile, and continuum flux are being investigated. Also shown is the disentangling on spectra from an artificial eclipsing binary. It is now possible to optimize on the flux ratios of each spectrum, making the disentangling a technique for extracting photometric information from spectroscopic observations usually provided by additional photometry. Furthermore, we make some comments about changes to the code since it was first published.Comment: accepted to A&

Spectangular – spectral disentangling for detailed chemical analysis of binaries

Disentangling of spectra helps to improve the orbit parameters and allows detailed chemical analysis. Spectangular is a GUI program written in C++ for spectral disentangling of spectra of SB1 and SB2 systems. It is based on singular value decomposition in the wavelength space and is coupled to an orbital solution.The results are the component spectra and the orbital parameters

Carbon 12C/13C isotope ratio of alpha Aurigae revised

Context. Capella ({\alpha} Aur) is one of the few binaries in the sky with two cool giant stars. With spectral types of G8III and G0III, the two components appear at different but distinct stages in their evolution. The G0 secondary star is a Hertzsprung-gap giant, and the G8 primary star is thought to be a clump giant. Aims. We present a new measure of the carbon 12 C/ 13 C isotope ratio of the primary component of Capella using high-resolution R $\approx$250 000 spectra obtained with the Potsdam Echelle Polarimetric and Spectroscopic Instrument (PEPSI) with both the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) and the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). Methods. Signal-to-noise ratios of up to 2 700 were obtained by averaging nightly spectra. These average spectra were used to disentangle the two binary components. The isotope ratio was derived with the use of spectrum synthesis from the CN lines at 8004 {\AA}. Results. We found that the 12 C/ 13 C ratio of the primary component of Capella is 17.8$\pm$1.9. Our measurement precision is now primarily limited by the spectral-line data and by the grid-step size of the model atmospheres rather than the data. The separated spectrum of the secondary component does not show distinguishable 12 CN and 13 CN lines because of its v sin i and higher temperature. Conclusions. Our new 12 C/ 13 C value is significantly lower than the previous value of 27$\pm$4 but now agrees better with the recent model prediction of 18.8 - 20.7.Comment: accepted to A&A Letters to the Edito

The assembly and alignment of the 4MOST Wide Field Corrector

The 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST) is a fibre-fed multi-object spectrograph for the VISTA telescope at the ESO Paranal Observatory in Chile. The goal of the 4MOST project is to create a general-purpose and highly efficient spectroscopic survey facility for astronomers in the 4MOST consortium and the ESO community. The instrument itself will record 2436 simultaneous spectra over a ∼4.2 square degree field of view and consists of an optical Wide-Field Corrector (WFC), a fibre positioner system based on a tilting spine design, and three spectrographs giving both high and low spectral dispersion. The WFC comprises of 6 lenses grouped into 4 elements, 2 of which are cemented doublets that act as an atmospheric dispersion corrector (ADC). The first lens element is 0.9m in diameter whilst the diameter of the other elements is 0.65m. For the instrument to meet its science goals, each lens needs to be aligned to ∼50µm – a major challenge. This is achieved using contact metrology methods supplemented by pencil beam laser probes. In particular, a novel off-axis laser beam system has been implemented to test the optics’ alignment before and after shipment. This paper details the alignment and assembly methods and presents the latest results on the achieved lens positioning and projected performance of the WF