2021 Newsletter #2

Completed delivery of telescope fibers for the MOONS project (VLT)

In the continuity of the expertise acquired in the field of fiber-optic links between telescopes and spectrographs, on projects such as GIRAFFE (VLT, Chile), ExTrA (La Silla Observatory, Chile), MEGARA (GTC, Canaries), and WEAVE (WHT, Canaries), SEDI-ATI has just finalized the delivery of the telescope/spectrograph fibers for the MOONS project.

MOONS is the Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph that will shortly be mounted on the VLT (Very Large Telescope), in Northern Chile.

The telescope offset that we delivered for MOONS is of about a thousand optical fibers that have the particularity of being in a cryogenic environment at 130 Kelvin.

Congratulations to the teams of Observatoire de Paris/Meudon – GEPI and SEDI-ATI!

From left to right: Mr. FLORES (Director GEPI), Mr. AMANS (Engineer GEPI), Mr. LAPORTE (Deputy Directeur GEPI), Mrs. GUINOUARD (Project Manager GEPI), Mr. VINCHANT (CEO SEDI-ATI), and Mr. LIOTARD (R&D Engineer SEDI-ATI).

Complex fiber-optic assemblies for large instruments

Fiber links for telescope and spectrographs are generally unique custom design assemblies since every telescope and instrument have their own configuration. SEDI-ATI has manufactured a large range of fiber systems for astronomy and grand instruments projects:

• MOONS (VLT): 2 slits of 200 mm in length with 512 fibers each. Each slit is composed of 32 slitlets, and each slitlet contains 16 fibers of 150 µm core.
• MEGARA (GTC): a large compact bundle of 567 fibers of 100 µm core displayed on a square area of 12.5”x11.3”, a small compact bundle of 500 fibers of 70 µm core distributed on an area of 8.5”x6.7”, and 100 mini bundles of 7 fibers of 100 µm core.
• GIRAFFE (VLT): a set of 132 fibers of 200 µm core equipped with magnetic knobs, 15 square matrices with 20 fibers of 140 µm core each, and a set of 300 fibers of 140 µm concentrated in the center of a rectangular matrix of 22×14 microlenses.
• And many other fiber systems such as ARES for the TJO ESTranGIS, WEAVE, OPTIMOS EVE…

The SEDI-ATI quality organization allows keeping component traceability, drawings, and material list for a minimum of ten years.

Schedule a virtual business meeting with our team during POM#3!

We participate in the 3^rd edition of the Photonics Online Meetings which will take place on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 9:00 am – 7:00 pm (CET)!

More than 330 companies are expected for 380 participants.

On the agenda:

• One2One Business meetings with experts in photonics from R&D, production, sales and purchasing teams
• Live webinars & conferences