"The slicer is a marvel of design and construction."
Dr Drew Potter, Johnson Space Center, NASA.
Thirty optics, in three arrays of ten, slice the incident image into ten strips, then stack the strips at the device output, which in turn feeds the entrance slit of a spectrograph. When commissioned and proven, other institutions sought the same technology. Completed as a special contract to NASA, Harvey Richardson designed the optics while I looked after mechanics, fabrication, alignment, and procedures.
Shown are the three arrays, each with ten optics.