Deployment And Handling Of The Virus Fiber Integral Field Units

The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Wide Field Upgrade includes deployment of the fiber-fed VIRUS and LRS2 spectrographs. In total, over 35,000 optical fibers of around 20m lengths are coupled to the telescope. This paper discusses the routing of those fibers, the hardware for securing them, and their deployment. Routing of the fibers to accommodate telescope motion while minimizing length and bend is presented. Hardware solutions for securing the fibers with details of the input and output terminations are included. Operations to safely install the fibers on the telescope are also covered.