The main function of a telescope spectrograph is to separate light into its component colours (or wavelengths) to reveal information about the chemical content, temperature, and motion of distant planets, comets, stars, interstellar gas clouds, and galaxies.
Benefiting from an underground facility, where temperatures remain constant year-round and vibration is practically non-existent, Optical Surfaces can routinely produce spectrograph optics including flats, lenses, mirrors, and prisms that stretch the limits of conventional optical fabrication techniques.
Investment in a range of interferometers enables the company to undertake one-to-one testing of even the largest diameter telescope spectrograph optics. Topographic and fringe analysis provides precise testing of surface roughness and confirms the wave front of various surface forms. Operating a rolling programme for calibration of test optics where possible to national standards and production approval to ISO 9001-2015 ensures that the quality of telescope spectrograph optics from Optical Surfaces is second to none.
Optical Surfaces is a trusted precision optics supply partner to the international astronomy community. In recent years, the company has produced key optics for the SPIRou and ESPaDOnS spectrographs at the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope (CFHT), the Narval stellar spectropolarimeter on the 2m Bernard Lyot Telescope in the French Pyrenees, the High-Resolution Optical Spectrograph (HROS) based on the 8m Gemini Telescope in Chile, and the Fibre-fed Extended Range Optical Spectrograph (FEROS) at the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
