AutoFib2: small fibers

Stephen J. Goodsell; Maarten F. Blanken; Romano Corradi; Kevin M. Dee; P. D. Jolley

doi:10.1117/12.460845

7 March 2003 AutoFib2: small fibers

Stephen J. Goodsell, Maarten F. Blanken, Romano Corradi, Kevin M. Dee, P. D. Jolley

Proceedings Volume 4841, Instrument Design and Performance for Optical/Infrared Ground-based Telescopes; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.460845
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2002, Waikoloa, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

In July 2001, AutoFib-2 (AF2), the prime focus robotic fiber positioner for the Isaac Newton Group's (ING) 4.2m William Hershel Telescope (WHT) had its new Small Fiber Module (SFM) successfully commissioned. The new SFM contains 150 science fibers and 10 fiducial bundles. Each science fiber has a diameter of 90 μm, which corresponds to 1.6 arcsec in the sky. The continuous science fibers are fed into the Nasmyth platform Wide Field Fiber Optic Spectrograph (WYFFOS). Each fiducial bundle, 450 μm in diameter, contains 10,000 coherent fibers providing a rough imaging capability over an 8 arcsec round field. This paper looks at the reasons for developing this module, examines its mechanical design, describes its new science and fiducial fibers, looks at the fiber alignment techniques used, explains the new guiding system and briefly discusses changes in the AF2 control system. It continues to reveal the results of some fiber characterization experiments performed on sky and gives an example of a recent science run. The paper concludes with a section that lists planned AF2 enhancements.

Citation Download Citation

Stephen J. Goodsell, Maarten F. Blanken, Romano Corradi, Kevin M. Dee, and P. D. Jolley "AutoFib2: small fibers", Proc. SPIE 4841, Instrument Design and Performance for Optical/Infrared Ground-based Telescopes, (7 March 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.460845

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