Regularity of WEAVE/LIFU fibre array

The plot above shows a back-illuminated image of the LIFU fibre array (taken by Neil O'Mahony on 13 March 2026), on which is superimposed (by Marc Verheijen) a regular array of red circles of similar average spacing. This highlights small irregularities in the positioning of the fibres, of up to 0.5 arcsec, or 30 micron, on the left-hand side of the array.

Until the astrometry of the LIFU array is fully characterised, the data-analysis software which generates the data cube (intensity as a function of x, y and wavelength) assumes the fibres to be laid out on a perfect hexagonal grid.

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