Measuring Radial Velocities with MAROON-X

We report on the progress of MAROON-X, a new high-resolution echelle spectrograph in regular operations at the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii. MAROON-X is designed to detect Earth sized planets orbiting mid to late M dwarfs using the radial velocity method, with an instrumental precision better than 30 cm/s. Since the beginning of operations in 2019, MAROON-X has undergone several observing runs and is open to interested astronomers. Those who plan to observe with MAROON-X have access to a new Exposure Time Calculator, a graphical tool that allows users to determine a predicted radial velocity measurement precision for the instrument, given the conditions of their observations. We discuss how these predicted models for the radial velocity performance of the instrument compare to results from real observations, and we report on MAROON-X’s recent results on measuring masses for small TESS planets.