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Astronomical Spectroscopy - Physics - University of Cincinnati

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– 62 –<br />

3.3. Observing Techniques: What Happens at Night<br />

One <strong>of</strong> the goals <strong>of</strong> this chapter has been to provide observing tips, and possibly the<br />

best way <strong>of</strong> doing this is provide some examples <strong>of</strong> what some typical nights are actually like.<br />

Included here are examples <strong>of</strong> observing with a long-slit spectrograph, observing with a fiber<br />

spectrograph, and some advice on what to do when observing with a NIR spectrometer.<br />

A common theme that emerges from these (mostly true) stories is that the observers<br />

spend a lot <strong>of</strong> time thinking through the calibration needs <strong>of</strong> their programs. For the optical<br />

this is mainly an issue <strong>of</strong> getting the flat-fields “right” (or at least good enough), while there<br />

are more subtle issues involved in NIR spectroscopy. Throughout these the same philosophy<br />

holds: obtaining useful spectra involves a lot more than just gathering photons at the right<br />

wavelength.<br />

3.3.1. Observing with a long-slit spectrograph<br />

The GoldCam spectrometer on the Kitt Peak 2.1-meter provides an interesting example<br />

<strong>of</strong> a classical long-slit instrument. The observing program described here was aimed at<br />

obtaining good (

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