SSO News

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue13 1–28 February 2021

Repair of the Veloce Laser Frequency Comb

Veloce is a planet-finding spectrograph that uses a laser frequency comb (LFQ) to dramatically increase the accuracy at which velocities can be measured. The laser comb has been out of service for several weeks and this has severely hampered the capabilities of Veloce. It was determined that a pump-diode needed replacement and a polarization-maintaining optical fibre needed to be spliced. Normally, an engineer from Menlo systems (the laser comb manufacturer) would fly out to Australia from Germany to carry out repairs in-situ. However, COVID travel restrictions made this practically impossible. 

The Observatory reached out to organizations within Australia to see if they had the right people and the right equipment (a PM splicer) to get us out of trouble.  The photonics group at Macquarie University just happened to have both, and with the assistance of Menlo engineer Yuanjie Wu, who dialled in via Zoom from China, PM splicing master Tobias managed to successfully splice the PM fibre on the first try. He also saved the day by splicing an optical fibre that provided the HAT South telescope communications with the outside world. The fibre had been severed by a hungry local marsupial early last week.

Aloha Shane Paul

After many years of dedicated service with the Mechanical Team at SSO, Shane Paul is leaving SSO to take up a position as Site Manager of the ANU Kioloa Coastal Campus. He will be exchanging the mountains for the sea and the rugby ball for the surfboard. We wish Shane all the best in his new role at the ANU, and look forward to hearing about his surfing exploits.

Ben Lawton and Chris Lidman on behalf of the team at SSO.

_{Picture: From left to right, Tobias Feger (MQ), Ben Lawton (RSAA) and Kristin Feigert (RSAA) smiling in front of the repaired Veloce LFC. The PM splicer is in the foreground.}