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[31.02] Complete Results from Phases I and II of the McDonald Observatory Planet Search Program

W. D. Cochran, R. Wittenmyer, M. Endl (U.T. Austin), A. P. Hatzes (TLS Tautenburg)

We present complete results from Phases I and II of the McDonald Observatory Planet Search (MOPS) Program. The MOPS is a high precision radial velocity survey for Jovian planets in orbit around nearby stars. Phases I, II, and III all use the coudé spectrograph of the McDonald Observatory 2.7m Harlan Smith Telescope. Phase I of the MOPS program began in 1989, and used the telluric O₂ band near 6300{Å} as the velocity metric. In 1992 we migrated to Phase II, in which we switched to use of an I₂ cell in order to improve the velocity precision and instrument stability. Both Phase I and II imaged a single order of an echelle grating onto a TI 800 \times 800 CCD. (The current Phase III uses a multi-order cross-dispersed echelle grating with a TEK 2048 \times 2048 detector.) Here we show all of the Phase I and II results. We use these results, combined with Phase III data where appropriate, to compute mass limits on planetary companions as a function of orbital period for all of our target stars.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #3
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.