Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue62 1–31 May 2025

Instrument updates

There has been a hive of activity at SSO over the past month.   

It started with a visit from Annino Vaccarella and Greg Jolly from the AITC. With support from SSO and other AITC staff, they replaced the ring boards that were thought to be causing the four-amp readout mode in one of the Veloce CCDs to occasionally fail. In the end, the likely cause of the fault was an electrical short in a video cable. The instrument is now in the process of cooling down in preparation for the start of the next Veloce run on 04 June.

SSO also had a visit from Julia Bryant and Fred Crous from the University of Sydney. Julia and Fred have been working closely with Glen Murphy, Matthew Balk, and Carl Holmesby to come up with a better way to pack and store the complex and delicate optical components of Hector (see the attached figure). This will make the changing from Hector to other instruments safer, easier, and less time-consuming.

June will see a considerable amount of work related to the refurbishment of 2dF. This would not be possible without the excellent support that SSO gets from the AITC and AAO.  2dF will be offered in shared-risk mode starting during the latter part of semester 2025B.

Chris Lidman, on behalf of the staff at SSO

Image: A view of the Hector field plate fully configured for an observation.