Automated Planet Finder

{{Infobox telescope}}

{{short description|Robotic optical telescope searching for extrasolar planets}}

The Automated Planet Finder (APF) Telescope a.k.a. Rocky Planet Finder, is a fully robotic 2.4-meter optical telescope at Lick Observatory, situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, east of San Jose, California, USA.Steven S. Vogt et al., [https://arxiv.org/abs/1402.6684 APF - The Lick Observatory Automated Planet Finder], 26 February 2014. It is designed to search for extrasolar planets in the range of five to twenty times the mass of the Earth. The instrument will examine about 10 stars per night. Over the span of a decade, the telescope is expected to study 1,000 nearby stars for planets.{{cite news |url=http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/text.asp?pid=1537 |title=Major gift supports crucial piece of Automated Planet Finder |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080613013718/http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/text.asp?pid=1537 |archive-date=2008-06-13 |first=Hugh |last=Powell |publisher=UC Santa Cruz}} Its estimated cost was $10 million.{{Cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Automated-Planet-Finder-telescope-seeks-life-3177056.php |title=Automated Planet Finder telescope seeks life |first=David |last=Perlman |date=August 21, 2010 |work=San Francisco Chronicle}} The total cost-to-completion of the APF project was $12.37 million. First light was originally scheduled for 2006, but delays in the construction of the major components of the telescope[http://ucodirector.blogspot.com/2009/10/uco-newsletter-6-october-2009.html UCO Director Newsletters: Newsletter #6 October 2009] pushed this back to August 2013.{{cite web |url=http://www.ucolick.org/public/telescopes/apf.html |title=Telescopes of the Lick Observatory |work=University of California Observatories |date=2015 |access-date=2016-08-23 }} It was commissioned in August 2013.{{Cite web | url=https://www.ucolick.org/public/telescopes/apf.html |title = Mt. Hamilton Telescopes: Carnegie Double Astrograph}}

The telescope uses high-precision radial velocity measurements to measure the gravitational reflex motion of nearby stars caused by the orbiting of planets. The design goal is to detect stellar motions as small as one meter per second, comparable to a slow walking speed. The main targets will be stars within about 100 light years of the Earth.

Early tests show that the performance of the Ken and Gloria Levy Doppler Spectrometer is meeting the design goals. The spectrometer has high throughput and is meeting the design sensitivity of (1.0 m/s), similar to the radial velocity precision of HARPS and HIRES.