Red Optical Planet Survey: A radial velocity search for low mass M dwarf planets

We present radial velocity results from our Red Optical Planet Survey (ROPS), aimed at detecting low-mass planets orbiting mid-late M dwarfs. The similar to 10 ms(-1) precision achieved over 2 consecutive nights with the MIKE spectrograph at Magellan Clay is also found on week long timescales with UVES at VLT. Since we find that UVES is expected to attain photon limited precision of order 2 ms-1 using our novel deconvolution technique, we are limited only by the (<= 10 ms-1) stability of atmospheric lines. Rocky planet frequencies of eta(circle plus) = 0.3-0.7 lead us to expect high planet yields, enabling determination of eta(circle plus) for the uncharted mid-late M dwarfs with modest surveys.