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We describe a flexible data reduction package for high resolution cross-dispersed echelle data. This open-source package is developed in Python and includes optional GUIs for most of the steps. It does not require any pre-knowledge about the form or position of the echelle-orders. It has been tested on cross-dispersed echelle spectrographs between 13k and 115k resolution (bifurcated fiber-fed spectrogaph ESO-HARPS and single fiber-fed spectrograph TNT-MRES). HiFLEx can be used to determine radial velocities and is designed to use the TERRA package but can also control the radial velocity packages such as CERES and SERVAL to perform the radial velocity analysis. Tests on HARPS data indicates radial velocities results within ±3 m s−1 of the literature pipelines without any fine tuning of extraction parameters.

We describe a flexible data reduction package for high resolution cross-dispersed echelle data. This open-source package is developed in Python and includes optional GUIs for most of the steps. It does not require any pre-knowledge about the form or position of the echelle-orders. It has been tested on cross-dispersed echelle spectrographs between 13k and 115k resolution (bifurcated fiber-fed spectrogaph ESO-HARPS and single fiber-fed spectrograph TNT-MRES). HiFLEx can be used to determine radial velocities and is designed to use the TERRA package but can also control the radial velocity packages such as CERES and SERVAL to perform the radial velocity analysis. Tests on HARPS data indicates radial velocities results within 3 m s−1 of the literature pipelines without any fine tuning of extraction parameters.

In recent years, new coronagraphic schemes have been proposed, the most promising being the optical vortex phase mask coronagraphs. In our work, a new scheme of broadband optical scalar vortex coronagraph is proposed and characterized experimentally in the laboratory. Our setup employs a pair of computer generated phase gratings (one of them containing a singularity) to control the chromatic dispersion of phase plates and achieves a constant peak-to-peak attenuation below 1:1000 over a bandwidth of 120 nm centered at 700 nm. An inner working angle of \\(\\lambda\\)/D is demonstrated along with a raw contrast of 11.5\\,magnitudes at 2\\(\\lambda\\)/D. A more compact setup achieves a peak-to-peak attenuation below 1:1000 over a bandwidth of 60 nm with the other results remaining the same.

We describe a flexible data reduction package for high resolution cross-dispersed echelle data. This open-source package is developed in Python and includes optional GUIs for most of the steps. It does not require any pre-knowledge about the form or position of the echelle-orders. It has been tested on cross-dispersed echelle spectrographs between 13k and 115k resolution (bifurcated fiber-fed spectrogaph ESO-HARPS and single fiber-fed spectrograph TNT-MRES). HiFLEx can be used to determine radial velocities and is designed to use the TERRA package but can also control the radial velocity packages such as CERES and SERVAL to perform the radial velocity analysis. Tests on HARPS data indicates radial velocities results within 3m/s of the literature pipelines without any fine tuning of extraction parameters.

Nulling interferometry has been identified as a competitive technique for the detection of extrasolar planets. The technique consists in combining out-of-phase pairs of telescopes to null effectively the light of a bright star an reveal the dim glow of the companion. We have manufactured and tested with monochromatic light an integrated optics component which combines a linear array of 4 telescopes in the nulling mode envisaged by Angel & Wolf (1997). Our testbench simulates the motion of a star in the sky. The tests have demonstrated a nulling scaling as the fourth power of the baseline delay.