A High Spectral Resolution Atlas of Comet 122P/de Vico

On 3 and 4 October 1995, we obtained high spectral resolving power (R=λ/Δλ=60,000) observations of Comet 122P/de Vico using the 2DCoude cross-dispersed echelle spectrograph on the 2.7-m telescope of McDonald Observatory. The spectra cover the wavelength range 3830–10,192 Å. The spectra from 3830 to 5776 Å are continuous, but from 5777 to 10,192 Å there are increasing interorder gaps. The comet was at a heliocentric distance of 0.66 AU and a geocentric distance of 1.0 AU. Comet de Vico has a very high gas-to-dust ratio and the spectra have excellent signal/noise. These two factors combined to yield spectra with a large number of emission lines. We have collected laboratory molecular line lists and have used these line lists to identify as many of the detected lines as possible. We have identified 12,219 emission lines and have located another 4,055 lines which we cannot identify. We present representative spectra and identifications along with a description of our plans to make these spectra and identifications available to the scientific community. This atlas should prove to be a valuable tool for future studies of comets.