RINGO operational

The optical polarimeter "RINGO" is now being used routinely after being integrated into the Liverpool Telescope's Robotic Control System (RCS). It was commissioned to perform rapid followup of gamma ray bursts (GRBs) and was developed and installed in just six months. Later this year it will also become available for scheduled observations, beginning in semester 2006B.

For more details on RINGO's design and operation, see its instrumentation page.

Astigmatism problem resolved

The astigmatism problem that became apparent in LT images late last year has been resolved.

During last October's major engineering work to recoat the primary and secondary mirrors, TTL installed some astigmatism correctors on the primary mirror cell. These didn't work as expected however and under-corrected the astigmatism.

Since then the pneumatic line network to the corrector actuators has been redesigned, and was put into use during the scheduled engineering trip in March. The precise pneumatic pressure to use is still being tuned, but testing now shows the astigmatism is being corrected properly.