The nature of the fiber noise with the FOCES spectrograph. Nature, modeling and a way to achieve S/N > 400

The non-white noise noticed using the fiber-fed F spectrograph is recognized as the result of vignetting to an uneven distribution of monochromatic light in the spectrograph beam behind the fiber exit. This phenomenon - that can be assigned toevery fiber-coupled spectrograph with vignetting of the light path behind the fiber - is qualitatively and quantitatively described and modeled. The S /N ratio that seemed to be limited to ≈200 when surrounding the object exposure by two flatfield exposures is shown to reach the theoretical limit (defined by the linear range of the CCD-detector) of S /N ≈ 500. This is achieved by using multiple flatfield exposures in combination with a fiber vibration device allowing non-harmonic movement of the fiber during exposure time.