After finishing optical rework in April 2013
(Figure 2), F2 stepped closer to its final round
of commissioning observations when it
was moved from the Gemini South summit
instrument lab onto port 5 of the Instrument Support Structure on June 11, 2013.
The first preliminary science queue data
were obtained July 19th, and regular queue
observations began in late September.
F2 began obtaining data in “shared-risk”
mode in August 2013 and between then and
mid-December has executed 15 queue programs. Despite this exciting milestone, challenges remained. One problem involved the
instrument’s On-Instrument Wavefront Sensor (OIWFS) used to optimize the delivered
image quality to the camera. During on-sky
checks on the night of August 24th, an alignment problem with the OIWFS became apparent. An inspection quickly followed, and
the mechanism was realigned as precisely as
possible with minimum intrusion (i.e., without moving other optical components).
PIs with programs in the 2013B queue were
informed of the possibility of reverting to
the use of PWFS2, and observations were
prepared for either option, allowing queue
observations to continue. An additional
problem was discovered with repeatability
of the Lyot wheel mechanism, but a solution
was identified and the problem resolved in
December. However, delivered image quality is a significant remaining issue, and is still
under active investig