GeminiFocus 2013 Year in Review | Page 50

Scot Kleinman with contributions by Bernadette Rodgers, Benoit Neichel, Rodrigo Carrasco, Andre-Nicolas Chene, Chad Trujillo, Percy Gomez, Stephen Goodsell, Fredrik Rantakyro, Eric Tollestrup, Maxime Boccas, and Peter Michaud Instrument Development: 2013 Review 2013 was an exceptional year for instrumentation at Gemini, with a suite of new instruments and events at Gemini South, including the highly successful Gemini South Multi-conjugate adaptive optics System (GeMS) combined with the Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager (GSAOI), and the arrival, integration, first light, and start of commissioning of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI). In parallel, we continue to look to the future in order to develop the capabilities of both Gemini telescopes and support the diverse needs of our user community. Rapid progress in a host of new instrumentation initiatives at Gemini occurred throughout 2013. Most of these reached fruition at Gemini South, with the most tangible being queue science with GeMS/GSAOI, FLAMINGOS-2, and first light for GPI. At Gemini North, the fiber-fed, shared use of CFHT’s ESPaDOnS instrument through the GRACES project points to a good collaborative effort that is trailblazing the astronomical use of long fibers and furthering Gemini’s North’s exciting future on Mauna Kea. The following brief summaries provide a taste of what the present and future holds for Gemini instrumentation. Watch for further details in future issues of GeminiFocus and on the Gemini website at: http://www.gemini.edu/sciops/future-instrumentation FLAMINGOS-2: On Sky, Doing Science “Gemini Observatory’s latest tool for astronomers, a second-generation infrared instrument called FLAMINGOS-2 (F2), has ‘traveled a long road’ to begin science observations for the Gemini scientific community.” So begins the August 2013 press release (www.gemini. edu/ node/12047), showcasing several spectacular F2 on-sky commissioning images and presenting an update on progress (FIgure 1). Since then, science observations have begun! 48 GeminiFocus 2013 Year in Review January2014