The Spectrograph is available at the f/15 Cassegrain focus of the 1.0m Kapteyn Telescope. The instrument was built at the University Observatory, St Andrews and is based on the original design by Richardson and Brealey (J.R.A.S. Canada 67, 165 (1973)). Both the camera and collimator optical systems are off-axis designs which produce high quality spectral images in a flat focal plane. The aluminium instrument casing has low flexure, is compact and is light in weight (18 kg). At the time of writing the Spectrograph is manually operated and uses photographic detection, although electronic detection may become available. The present instrument performance makes it suitable for medium and low dispersion spectroscopy of relatively bright objects. Two sets of optics are available to optimise efficiency in ``red'' or ``blue'' spectral regions and three gratings provide different dispersions.
Figure 1: Schematic diagram of main optical components
The general construction, layout and facilities of the Spectrograph are described initially, followed by details of operational procedures and precautions. Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the main optical components and their relative locations.