Astronomical instrumentation

The AITC has a long history of research and development in astronomical instrumentation, and has constructed a number of precision instruments for our own telescopes, and others around the world. The AITC provides advanced facilities for the instrumentation scientists and engineers in Australia and overseas, who work on projects in the areas of optics and detector science, integral-field spectroscopy, adaptive-optics technologies, instrumentation for the next generation of ground-based telescopes, and survey astronomy. The AITC is also a unique national facility for training instrument science, engineering, and astronomy students.

The AITC has considerable expertise and experience in design and development of advanced instrumentation for astronomy and space science. In the past we completed two instruments for the twin 8m telescopes of the Gemini Observatory:  the Near-infrared Integral-Field Spectrometer (NIFS) and Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager (GSAOI), in addition to instrumentation for the facilties of Mt Stromlo Observatory and Siding Spring Observatory: such as the Dual-Beam Spectrograph (DBS), and Wide-Field Spectrograph (WiFeS) instruments for ANU 2.3m Telescope (also built largely in house), and the wide-field, 238 megapixel SkyMapper camera.

The instrumentation program has particular expertise in optical and infrared spectroscopy, integral-field spectroscopy, adaptive optics, and wide-field imaging.