SSO News

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue6 1–31 July 2020

Life is never dull at an Observatory. The weather is constantly changing and you never quite know what is just around the corner. Last week, during an instrument change at the AAT, an SSO technician snuck a glance into the Coudé focus vestibule. This small room, which once contained the pre-slit unit of UCLES, now contains the Veloce fibre shaker. The fibre shaker is a very simple device that does a very important job. By mechanically moving and bending the fibre, it scrambles the signal in the fibre, leading to more accurate radial velocities and greater sensitivity to detecting exoplanets.

 To the horror of the technician and everyone else, the shaker had literally shaken the fibre conduit to bits and almost, almost severed the delicate fibres in the conduit, as can be seen in the photo.

After a bit of discussion with the makers of the fibre shaker and the fibre conduit, it was decided to repair the fibre conduit with some extra padding, some green tape and plastic holders. The shaker is back in use and astronomers are able to continue using Veloce. A more permanent repair is being planned. In the meantime, we are monitoring the fibre shaker closely as severing the fibre would lead to months of downtime. A video of it in action can be downloaded here. 

Zoe Holcombe

Chris Lidman