Undergrad Question about the William Herschel Telescope's new "Weave" device

[phinds]

TL;DR

question about an article regarding the William Herschel Telescope's new "Weave" device

This article

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62321537

makes it sounds like quite a big deal and if the description is accurate then that seems like a reasonable characterization, however I have little to no knowledge to base any judgment on AND this is a pop-science type of description and I have no faith in those at even though they DO occasionally get things (or at least most things) right. So ... I'm wondering if anyone here can give me a better idea of how important these observations will be.

Thanks

Paul

 

[Baluncore]

This is not a novel idea, it is a new instrument for the WHT.
It was developed and has been used at other telescopes for some time.

Many of the techniques for multifibre spectroscopy were developed at the Anglo-Australian Observatory for use on the AAT and the UK Schmidt telescopes.
https://www.atnf.csiro.au/outreach/education/senior/astrophysics/spectrographs.html#specobmulti

 

[phinds]

Thanks

 

[collinsmark]

It does sound pretty cool.

I can imagine the advantages of such a system.
(a) You can gather spectral data for different stars in parallel.
(b) Unlike traditional spectoscopy (which can also measure different stars in parallel), there is no risk of overlap of different star spectrum (i.e., produces better data).
(c) Although the equipment is more complicated, the data gathering is probably a lot easier to automate, once everything is set up and calibrated.