$6M Australian National U. designed instrument bound for Hawaii (Forwarded)

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Australian National University
Canberra, Australia

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Thursday 4 August 2005

$6M ANU designed instrument bound for Hawaii

One of the world's most advanced astronomy instruments designed at Mt
Stromlo is set to be shipped to its new home at the international Gemini
Observatory in Hawaii this week.

The $6 million Near-infrared Integral-Field Spectrograph (NIFS),
completed by engineers at the Research School of Astronomy and
Astrophysics, is the first major international telescope instrument
completed at Mt Stromlo Observatory since the bushfires of January 2003.

NIFS will be mounted on to one of the world's largest telescopes in
Hawaii, the 8.1-metre Gemini North, used to study objects in deep space.
NIFS will allow astronomers to observe space at a resolution on par with
the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Gemini Observatory is an international partnership, including
Australia, to build and operate two 8.1-metre telescopes in Hawaii and
Chile. NIFS is the first instrument built in Australia for the Gemini
Observatory.

The original NIFS was destroyed in the January 2003 bushfires and NIFS-2
has been rebuilt by the Canberra-based aerospace company, Auspace Ltd,
in collaboration with its Mt Stromlo designers and engineers.

NIFS uses a unique optical design to analyse the light from an object
allowing astronomers to study phenomena in detail, including the
gravitational effects of black holes, the interactions of colliding
galaxies, and the formation and death of stars.

The Director of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics,
Professor Penny Sackett, said the completion of NIFS closes a
significant chapter in the story of Mt Stromlo's recovery.

"The completion of this instrumentation contract is a significant
milestone for Mt Stromlo. It clearly demonstrates the major contribution
of ANU to international astronomical research and technology."

The NIFS Project Scientist, Dr Peter McGregor, said: "A major spinoff of
NIFS is the guaranteed observing time for the Australian team using the
instrument on Gemini. This means that the first discoveries with NIFS
are likely to be made by Australians."

The ANU engineering team, led by Dr McGregor, is also designing and
building the multi-million dollar Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager
due to be shipped to Gemini South telescope in Chile next year.

The Managing Director of Auspace Limited, Mr Roger Franzen, said the
quality of the design and build of NIFS was equal to any piece of
observing equipment anywhere in the world.

"The interaction between ANU and Auspace has been excellent. Auspace
brings industrial experience in system integration and testing to the
project. ANU engineers have a deep understanding of the instrument design."

The Canberra alliance between Auspace and ANU continues with the joint
construction of a novel optical integral field spectrograph for the
University's 2.3 metre telescope at Siding Spring Observatory near
Coonabarabran using funding from the DEST Systemic Infrastructure
Initiative. This spectrograph extends the design concepts pioneered by
ANU in the NIFS instrument.

NIFS will begin its journey to Hawaii from Auspace in Mitchell this week
following its inspection and acceptance by the Head of Instrumentation
at Gemini North Observatory, Mr Doug Simons.

A fact sheet about NIFS and photographs are available from the ANU Media
Office.