ALFOSC Arc Lamps used with CCD7 and CCD8

Mounted lamps

For more than a decade we have the following lamps installed in ALFOSC: Halogen, Helium, Neon, Thorium-Argon (faint). See this page for typical exposure times for the different grisms. Note that Helium and Neon can be switched-on at the same time, as in fact any other combination of installed lamps.

Lamps and arc maps

Spectral lamps from Osram: Ne, He, Cs, Zn
Hollow cathode lamps from Cathodeon/Heraeus: Nb, Cu, Th-Ar, Fe-Ar

The Osram Cs and Zn lamps use Ar as a filler gas. The Cathodeon Nb and Th lamps also have Ar as a filler gas, while the Cu lamp has Ne as a filler. All this means that the Cs, Zn, Nb and Th lamps all give Ar lines as well as lines from the appropriate element while the Cu lamp gives Ne lines as well as Cu lines.

Beware! the lines from Nb and Cu are all faint and generally require a integration of up to 20 minutes to detect them!

Also: He,Ne,Ar Line List (42k gzipped postscript), and an overview of IRAF line lists.