Fiber Optics

Fiberguide Industries to build Gemini South telescope fiber-optic array

Feb. 23, 2016

Fiberguide Industries was selected to build the fiber-optic array at the heart of the new GHOST.

Fiberguide is building a fiber-optic array critical to function of the Gemini South telescope.

Fiberguide Industries (Stirling, NJ) has been selected to build the fiber-optic array at the heart of the new GHOST (Gemini High-resolution Optical SpecTrograph) in the Gemini South telescope.

Built for the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), who is leading the project, the array uses cutting-edge construction techniques and Fiberguide's expertise in building high-quality, high-performance fiber-optic subsystems is critical to the project's success. GHOST will provide two-object plus sky spectroscopy at full wavelength coverage from 363-950 nm and resolutions from 50,000 to 75,000.

Each fiber will carry a fraction of the light coming from a stellar object to minimize losses due to atmospheric blurring. Parameters such as fiber optic pointing error and insertion loss are minimized by using proprietary Fiberguide construction techniques and the long history of Fiberguide's experience building these types of arrays for astronomy, security, and data communications. The new instrument will allow for the efficient scanning of the night sky.

"Fiberguide has been integral to AAO's technology development for GHOST, a world-class instrument on one of the world's largest and most successful telescopes, the Gemini telescope," said project leader Andrew Sheinis. "Once delivered, GHOST will provide enhanced opportunities to understand the universe, including the discovery and study of extra-solar planets."

SOURCE: Fiberguide Industries; http://www.fiberguide.com/

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.