CARMENES. I: instrument and survey overview

  P. J. Amado, A. Quirrenbach et al.


  CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exo-earths with
  Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrographs) is a next generation
  instrument to be built for the 3.5 m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory
  by a consortium of eleven Spanish and German institutions. Conducting a
  five-year exoplanet survey targeting ~300 M dwarfs with the completed
  instrument is an integral part of the project. The CARMENES instrument
  consists of two separate échelle spectrographs covering the wavelength range
  from 0.55 to 1.7 mum at a spectral resolution of R = 82,000, fed by fibers
  from the Cassegrain focus of the telescope. The spectrographs are housed in
  vacuum tanks providing the temperature-stabilized environments necessary to
  enable a 1 m/s radial velocity precision employing a simultaneous calibration
  with emission-line lamps.