Making FORS2 fit for exoplanet observations (again)

H. M. J. Boffin; G. Blanchard; O. A. Gonzalez; S. Moehler; E. Sedaghati; N. Gibson; M. E. van den Ancker; J. Smoker; J. Anderson; C. Hummel; D. Dobrzycka; A. Smette; G. Rupprecht

Making FORS2 fit for exoplanet observations (again)

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2015-02-12 v1 Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics Instrumentation and Detectors

Authors: H. M. J. Boffin , G. Blanchard , O. A. Gonzalez , S. Moehler , E. Sedaghati , N. Gibson , M. E. van den Ancker , J. Smoker , J. Anderson , C. Hummel , D. Dobrzycka , A. Smette , G. Rupprecht

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Abstract

For about three years, it was known that precision spectrophotometry with FORS2 suffered from systematic errors that made quantitative observations of planetary transits impossible. We identified the Longitudinal Atmospheric Dispersion Compensator (LADC) as the most likely culprit, and therefore engaged in a project to exchange the LADC prisms with the uncoated ones from FORS1. This led to a significant improvement in the depth of FORS2 zero points, a reduction in the systematic noise, and should make FORS2 again competitive for transmission spectroscopy of exoplanets.

Keywords

space missions and telescopes

Cite

@article{arxiv.1502.03172,
  title  = {Making FORS2 fit for exoplanet observations (again)},
  author = {H. M. J. Boffin and G. Blanchard and O. A. Gonzalez and S. Moehler and E. Sedaghati and N. Gibson and M. E. van den Ancker and J. Smoker and J. Anderson and C. Hummel and D. Dobrzycka and A. Smette and G. Rupprecht},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.03172},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

To appear in the March issue of the ESO Messenger

Making FORS2 fit for exoplanet observations (again)

Abstract

Keywords

Cite

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