STAROS Search Engine

What is Melchiors database ?

This STAROS search engine can give you innovative access to the Melchiors Database spectra with preparation of spectra for your common software (ISIS, VSpec, SpecINTI, Demetra..).

The Challenge of Instrumental Response (IR):

In the STAROS campaign, astronomers often faced difficulties in calculating and applying the correct instrumental response to spectra. These challenges arise from methodological issues or the choice of reference stars. IR is crucial as it helps to understand how an instrument alters the observed data, thereby obtaining accurate information about the studied stars.

The Solution: The Melchiors Database

The Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma, with its 1.2 m Mercator telescope, has launched the Melchiors project, a revolutionary initiative in the world of astronomy.

Features of Melchiors:

High Resolution: With a resolution of R=85,000, Melchiors provides a very high precision, enabling detailed and accurate analyses.
Wide Range of Wavelengths: The coverage from 3900 Å to 9000 Å ensures a comprehensive study of the stellar spectrum, from O stars to M.
Data Quality: The spectra are carefully processed, ensuring their reliability and precision.

Impact on Spectrography

The Melchiors database is a game-changer in spectrography. The concerns of finding suitable reference stars for low or high spectral resolution work are now a thing of the past. This resource is a treasure for astronomers, greatly facilitating the understanding and analysis of stellar spectra.

References

A big thank you to the designers of the Melchiors database and to the team at the Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory. You can find all information about this database in the above paper reference.

«MELCHIORS: The Mercator Library of High Resolution Stellar Spectroscopy » Royer, P., T. Merle, K. Dsilva, S. Sekaran, H. Van Winckel, Y. Frémat, M. Van der Swaelmen, et al. . arXiv.org, 5 novembre 2023. https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.02705v1.