HERMES Camera lenses before assembly Inside the KiwiSpec Model R4-100 showing the Echelle grating and the collimator mirrors KiwiStar Optics, Optical Workshop Manager Dave Cochrane inspects the surface of a 686 mm diameter corrector lens during manufacture.   Doublet bonding With the use of time-lapse photography, stars appear to circle the Earth’s axis of rotation projected on the sky. Image courtesy of the Australian Astronomical Observatory. HERMES Collimator mirror mount  KiwiStar Optics Research Technician Graeme Jonas inspects a truncated spherical mirror for the SALT High Resolution Spectrograph. Spectral images of over a million stars in the Milky Way are being captured with the help of powerful new spectrographs.

We are a global leader in precision optics for astronomy

We design, manufacture and install everything from one-off components to complete optical systems.

Large Precision Lenses
We specialise in customised, tightly-toleranced lens elements from 0.25m to over 1m in diameter, as well as optical assemblies and instruments.

Astronomical Spectrographs
Our range includes the KiwiSpec R4-100 Spectrograph – a multi-fibre feed, high-resolution vacuum Echelle spectrograph which can achieve precision radial velocity measurements of less than 1m per second.

Optical Components and Instruments
We make high-quality mirrors, prisms, filters, cameras, image slicers and turn-key instrumentation for spectrographs, telescopes and other devices.

Custom Solutions
Our solutions include lenses for a United States Navy navigation system and a camera for a proton radiography experiment at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States.

Everything is currently within specification, and I have every confidence that the full set of lenses will be on schedule and within specification.

Professor Gavin Dalton, Astrophysics, University of Oxford – William Herschel Telescope