MOSES — The MONET Star and Exoplanet Spectrograph

We introduce MOSES, the new High-Resolution Echelle Spectrograph designated for the 1.2m MONET telescope at McDonald Observatory, Texas, USA.

The science drivers are radial velocity experiments and activity monitoring in Sun-like stars. Set for installation in the final quarter of 2026, MOSES features a white pupil design and aims for a spectral resolution greater than 80,000 over the 380-680 nm wavelength range.

It incorporates a pixel sampling rate of 3.5 and uses two fibers to facilitate a simultaneous calibration mode. Encased within a vacuum vessel and operating in a temperature-stabilized environment, MOSES is expected to achieve a radial velocity precision below 2 m/s, aided by a Fabry-Pérot etalon calibration system.

This paper outlines the implementation of the fiber injection unit, the optical layout of the spectrograph, and the present status of the various subsystems under development.

S. Schäfer, L. Schmidt, H. Anwand-Heerwart, D. Jones, A. Reiners

Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
Cite as: arXiv:2606.06898 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2606.06898v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.06898
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Journal reference: Proc. SPIE 13096, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X, 1309689 (18 Jul 2024)
Related DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3017959
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Submission history
From: Sebastian Schäfer
[v1] Fri, 5 Jun 2026 04:29:09 UTC (5,324 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.06898

Astrobiology