The Galactic Archaeology with HERMES Survey

The goal of Galactic Archaeology is to reconstruct the lost stellar substructures of the protogalaxy, thereby obtaining a detailed physical picture of the formation and evolution of the Galaxy. The Galactic Archaeology with HERMES (GALAH) Survey is a major Australian-led project to commence in 2013 using the Anglo-Australian Telescope of the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO). It will use the new state-of-the-art HERMES instrument to obtain high resolution spectra of over a million Galactic disk stars. HERMES provides ∼400 multi-object capability and simultaneous spectra in four wavelength bands tailored to obtaining a range of chemical element lines, from light elements up to heavy neutron-capture elements. The GALAH survey will target stars down to V ∼ 14mag, and provide elemental abundances of well over 15 elements as well as accurate radial velocities.