Detailed design, initiated in Phase I, of a laboratory prototype of a fully automatic, fiber-fed astronomical spectrograph will be completed during this Phase II effort. The spectrograph will then be fabricated and laboratory experiments will be conducted with it to determine if the system performs as predicted during the Phase I study, and which of several key components work best. Based on the results of these laboratory experiments, the laboratory prototype will be appropriately modified, and the spectrograph will be evaluated via fully automated spectrographic observations of stars as part of ongoing scientific research programs of several typical research astronomers.
