AF2

AutoFib-2 is the WHT prime focus robotic fibre positioner.  It originally built within a collaboration between Durham and RGO.  After commissioning the instrument was plagued by unreliability and consequently the robot and fibre module were re-engineered by ING staff.

When mounted on the telescope AF2 is positioned behind the prime focus corrector.  The fibres are positioned on a field plate by a robotic set of jaws with 3-d motion capability.  The fibres are then run along a spider and then down the side of the telescope and finally entering the GHRIL cabin feeding the bench mounted spectrograph WYFFOS built by RGO.

The instrument operates with a small fibre module.  This contain 150 science fibres with 1.6 arcsec diameter (90 micron). The fibres are high-content OH fused silica made by Polymicro.  This module also contains 10 new fiducial bundles are available for field acquisition and (auto)guiding. Each fiducial bundle (450 micron diameter) contains 10000 coherent fibres providing a rough imaging capability over a 8 arcsec round field.

More Information

For more information on AF2 access the documentation set webpage, this gives links and locations to all AF2 documentation.  In particular the technical manual provides a detailed engineering instrument description.