WYFFOS has performed to its specifications, although a deposit on the field-flattening lens in front of the CCD had led to a significant amount of scattered light in 1995 runs. This deposit has been successfully removed at the RGO, and the cleaned system has been returned to La Palma for PATT runs in 1996A/B. There have been two science runs in March and May 1996, and a run scheduled for November 1996. During the November 1996 run, the echelle grating (see "Upgrades and Future Plans") and the WYFFOS transmission mode will be commissioned on the sky.
The throughtput of the WYFFOS/AUTOFIB system has been measured in the red and blue using spectrophotometric flux standards and the R600R and R300B gratings, respectively. Further information on the measured efficiency of the WYFFOS/AUTOFIB system over the wavelength region 3700A-8000A can be obtained from the following: for the blue , and for the red. The same information is available in tabular form for the blue , and for the red . The plots and tables give the AB magnitude corresponding to 1 photon/sec/A at various wavelengths. The blue data are more representative of the current system, since they were obtained with a clean system, and for a fibre of *average* throughput. There is significant variation in throughput from fibre to fibre, and the red data shown are for one of the highest-throughput fibres. The AB magnitudes should be regarded as a lower limit since losses for light missing the fibres have *not* been accounted for. At 5000 A, the AB magnitude is ~17.3 for an average fibre.
