The Astralis Instrumentation Consortium: overview of the first 5 years of operation and plans for future

The Astralis Instrumentation Consortium (Astralis) provides Australia’s national capability for optical astronomy instrumentation by combining expertise and resources from the Australian National University, Macquarie University and University of Sydney. Established in 2018 with support from Astronomy Australia Ltd. (AAL), Astralis has been in operation for over 5 years, and has been building instruments for the world’s largest telescopes. Here we present our review of the first five years of Astralis, including the benefits of building instruments in a national wide consortium environment, the challenges we have overcome, and the future of the Consortium.