SIMBAD references

The Hectospec is a 300 optical fiber fed spectrograph commissioned at the MMT in the spring of 2004. In the configuration pioneered by the Autofib instrument at the Anglo-Australian Telescope, Hectospec's fiber probes are arranged in a radial ``fisherman on the pond'' geometry and held in position with small magnets. A pair of high-speed, six-axis robots move the 300 fiber buttons between observing configurations within ∼300 s, and to an accuracy of ∼25 µm. The optical fibers run for 26 m between the MMT's focal surface and the bench spectrograph, operating at R∼1000-2000. Hectochelle, another high-dispersion bench spectrograph offering R∼35,000, is also available. The system throughput, including all losses in the telescope optics, fibers, and spectrograph, peaks at ∼10% at the grating blaze in 1" FWHM seeing. Correcting for aperture losses at the 1".5 diameter fiber entrance aperture, the system throughput peaks at ∼17%, close to our prediction of 20%. Hectospec has proven to be a workhorse instrument at the MMT. Together, Hectospec and Hectochelle have been scheduled for (1)/(3) of the available nights since its commissioning. Hectospec has returned approximately 60,000 reduced spectra for 16 scientific programs during its first year of operation.