MELCHIORS

The Mercator Library of High Resolution Stellar Spectroscopy^★

¹ Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D bus 2401, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
e-mail: pierre.royer@kuleuven.be
² Royal Observatory of Belgium, Avenue Circulaire 3, 1180 Brussels, Belgium
³ Institut d’Astronomie et d’Astrophysique, Université Libre de Bruxelles, CP 226 Boulevard du Triomphe, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium
⁴ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125, Firenze, Italy
⁵ Centre for eResearch, The University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
⁶ Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), 3 av. circulaire, 1180 Bruxelles, Belgium
⁷ Space sciences, Technologies and Astrophysics Research (STAR) Institute, Université de Liège, Allée du 6 Août 19C, Bat. B5C, 4000 Liège, Belgium
⁸ ACRI-ST, Centre d’Etudes et de Recherche de Grasse (CERGA), 10 Av. Nicolas Copernic, 06130 Grasse, France
⁹ Recogito AS, Storgaten 72, 8200 Fauske, Norway
¹⁰ Department of Astrophysics/IMAPP, Radboud University, PO Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands
¹¹ Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK
¹² Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
¹³ Astronomical Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, 251 65 Ondře-jov, Czech Republic
¹⁴ Astroserver.org, Fő tér 1, 8533 Malomsok, Hungary
¹⁵ Redwire Space, Hogenakkerhoekstraat 9, 9150 Kruibeke, Belgium
¹⁶ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
¹⁷ Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
¹⁸ Institut für Physik, Karl-Franzens Universität Graz, Universitätsplatz 5/II, NAWI Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria
¹⁹ Instituut voor Theoretische Fysica, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D bus 2415, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
²⁰ European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Córdova 3107, Vitacura, Casilla 19001, Santiago de Chile, Chile
²¹ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
²² 5 Rue des Doules, 4257 Berloz, Belgium
²³ Konkoly Observatory, HUN-REN Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, MTA Centre of Excellence, 1121 Budapest, Konkoly Thege Miklósút 15-17, Hungary

Received: 8 May 2023
Accepted: 18 September 2023

Abstract

Aims. Over the past decades, libraries of stellar spectra have been used in a large variety of science cases, including as sources of reference spectra for a given object or a given spectral type. Despite the existence of large libraries and the increasing number of projects of large-scale spectral surveys, there is to date only one very high-resolution spectral library offering spectra from a few hundred objects from the southern hemisphere (UVES-POP). We aim to extend the sample, offering a finer coverage of effective temperatures and surface gravity with a uniform collection of spectra obtained in the northern hemisphere.

Methods. Between 2010 and 2020, we acquired several thousand echelle spectra of bright stars with the Mercator-HERMES spectrograph located in the Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma, whose pipeline offers high-quality data reduction products. We have also developed methods to correct for the instrumental response in order to approach the true shape of the spectral continuum. Additionally, we have devised a normalisation process to provide a homogeneous normalisation of the full spectral range for most of the objects.

Results. We present a new spectral library consisting of 3256 spectra covering 2043 stars. It combines high signal-to-noise and high spectral resolution over the entire range of effective temperatures and luminosity classes. The spectra are presented in four versions: raw, corrected from the instrumental response, with and without correction from the atmospheric molecular absorption, and normalised (including the telluric correction).