# @(#)DESCRIPTION	19.1 (ESO-IPG) 02/25/03 14:27:15
This directory contains the source of the Optopus package, which help the 
observers of the fibre Optopus to prepare their observations.

The Optopus facility is designed to enable conventional use of the
Boller and Chivens spectrograph to be extended to simultaneous
spectroscopy of multiple or large extended objects.

At present, Optopus is available for use only at the 3.6m telescope,
and is intended to be used with a CCD detector. The fibre component of
Optopus consists of 54 separately cabled optical fibres which enable
light to be guided from freely distributed points in the focal plane to
a common "slit". The fibre input ends are precisely located at the
telescope focal plane by means of accurately drilled templates, known as
"starplates".

The Optopus starplates (one for each observed field) are prepared
in an automatic process in the ESO workshop in Garching, after the
observer has produced for each of them a drilling instruction file from
his/her coordinate data.

