Jon Lawrence, Head of Technology of the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), visited the IAA on Feb. 18-19. Jon spent his time in Granada to work with our group on the progress of the AAO feasibility study of LUCA at CAHA 3.5 m telescope. He also discussed with us the proposal of the AAO spectrograph, design by Robert Content, for the CASS spectrograph at the Schmidt.


Jon presents the Hector spectrograph at his seminar "Instrument development at the AAO".

We have been granted funding for the construction of the spectrograph and the fiber system thanks to two grant awards by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation throughout its 2018 Scientific Infrastructure Call (Ref. EQC2018-004621-P) and the regional Junta de Andalucía program to strengthening research institutes for the acquisition of the "Severo Ochoa" award of excellence (Ref. SOMM17/5208/IAA).