The Anglo-Australian Observatory’s Echidna fibre-positioner, developed for Japan’s Subaru telescope in Hawai’i, received a “Highly Commended” award at the Engineers Australia (Sydney Division) Engineering Excellence Awards held on 21 September at the Westin Hotel, Sydney.
Echidna is a unique instrument for positioning 400 optical fibres within a 15-cm focal plane with an accuracy of a few microns. Each fibre is held by a spine, and each spine can be moved independently. Echidna forms part of a new fibre-fed multi-object spectrograph, FMOS, for the 8-m Subaru telescope.
Echidna was one of eight finalists in its “Innovations and Inventions” category. Two joint winners were announced for the category: MonkeyBar (a method of joining steel reinforcing rods) and the Thompson Coupling (a constant velocity joint with no sliding surfaces). A fourth entry, laser-written waveguides developed by Macquarie University, was also designated as Highly Commended.
To qualify for the Innovations and Inventions category, projects must demonstrate fundamental innovation in engineering knowledge or technology. Entries are judged criteria including their originality and ingenuity, their use of sound engineering principles and practices, and the significance of the work as a benchmark.
The Engineering Excellence Awards are the most prestigious engineering and technology awards in Australia, and are designed to recognise, reward and promote Australian achievements in engineering. With 18,000 members, the Sydney Division is the largest of the nine Divisions of Engineers Australia.
Echidna was shipped from Australia in January 2007. It is currently in Hilo, Hawai’i, being integrated with other equipment, and will be transported to Subaru at the Mauna Kea Observatory at the end of October 2007. Tests on the sky will take place in February 2008.
In 2002 an earlier AAO instrument, the IRIS2 infrared imager and spectrograph, won the Innovations and Inventions category of the Sydney Division Engineering Excellence Awards, and also took out the overall prize, the JJC Bradfield Award.
Contact
Mr Sam Barden
Head of Instrumentation, Anglo-Australian Observatory
Tel +61 2 9372 4852
scb@aao.gov.au
Images and movies
Images from the Engineering Excellence Awards night, and of Echidna in Hawai'i, plus movies showing the movement of Echidna's spines.
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Members of the Echidna team at the Engineering Excellence AwardsL-R: Rolf Muller, Peter Gillingham, Jurek Brzeski, John Dawson, Urs Klauser. Also present were Sam Barden, Matthew Colless, Tony Farrell, Gabriella Frost and Lew Waller. Photo courtesy of Peter Gillingham |
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Members of the Echidna team at the Engineering Excellence AwardsL-R: Sam Barden, Gabriella Frost, Matthew Colless. Photo courtesy of Peter Gillingham |
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Echidna in Hawai'i, undergoing integration with the PIR (Prime focus InfraRed) component of the FMOS instrumentL-R: (back row) Masahiko Kimura (Subaru - Instrument Scientist), Scott Smedley (AAO), Rolf Muller (AAO), Masayuki Akiyama (Subaru - FMOS Project Scientist). Front row: Peter Gillingham, Jurek Brzeski (AAO). The red steel structure is the tilting jig, used to simulate telescope zenith angles. The jig holds the black PIR unit (Prime focus InfraRed), with the Echidna positioner at its core. Photo courtesy of Peter Gillingham |
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Jurek Brzeski tightening the bolts that hold Echidna in position within the PIR unit.Photo courtesy of Rolf Muller |
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Echidna being lowered into the PIR unitPhoto courtesy of Scott Smedley |
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First tilting test with Echidna integrated into the PIR unitPhoto courtesy of Rolf Muller |
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Movie of the Echidna spines movingMovie courtesy of Masayuki Akiyama |
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Movie of the Echidna spines moving - close-up viewMovie courtesy of Masayuki Akiyama |