Introduction
The Hamilton Echelle Spectrometer is used for high-resolution optical spectroscopy at the coude focus of the Shane 3-meter Telescope and with the 0.6-meter Coude Auxilliary Telescope (CAT). The Hamilton was designed by Steven S. Vogt (Lick Observatory) and realized in the Lick shops at University of California Santa Cruz. Its construction was made possible through the generous gift of Ms. Clara-Belle Hamilton.
The following is an abridged description of the Hamilton, and is not intended as a replacement for the user's manual, which covers the instrument and its operation in greater detail. However, while copies may be available from from your local reading room or from a another observer, and are available at the telescope, the manual (Lick Observatory Technical Report No. 58) is currently out of print. Moreover, the manual is now several years old and changes in the spectrograph, detectors, and associated software have rendered some portions out of date. Steve Vogt's 1987 PASP article on the Hamilton remains a useful source.
The Hamilton is a Lick Observatory facility instrument, available to the University of California astronomical community by subscription. Follow these links to:
All new users must be checked out by a resident astronomer on
their first night.
Please ask for this on your time request.
Please direct questions to Elinor Gates (egates@ucolick.org) (tony@ucolick.org) or Bryant Grigsby (bgrigsby@ucolick.org).