OCTOBER 2017
Opportunities for
Visiting Instruments
The instrumentation community
should note that the National Sci-
ence Foundation’s (NSF) Mid-Scale
Innovations Program (MSIP) Call
for Proposals has been announced
with a deadline of November 20,
2017. These grants can be used to-
ward a variety of astronomical ac-
tivities, including the development
of instrumentation and providing
the community with access to tele-
scope capabilities.
The Gemini Visiting Instrument Program is
the perfect complement to the National Sci-
ence Foundation’s (NSF) Mid-Scale Innova-
tions Program (MSIP), as it provides astrono-
mers with the opportunity to try out their
own unique and innovative instrumentation
on a world class telescope, while allowing all
interested parties to propose for time. See
the NSF Call for Proposals for more informa-
tion about the MSIP. Other programs that
may be of interest include the Astronomy
and Astrophysics Research Grants and the
Major Research Instrumentation Program.
Unfortunately, Gemini facility instrument
and instrument upgrade proposals are not
eligible for these grants.
If you are interested in finding out more
about how you might bring your instru-
ment to Gemini, or how Gemini might sup-
port your instrumentation plans, please
email us, and we will include you in the
mailing list for this discussion.
— Alison Peck
OCTOCAM Meetings Lead to
Forward Progress
After a successful kickoff meeting in April,
the OCTOCAM team worked with Gemini
January 2018 / 2017 Year in Review
staff to establish a bette r understanding of
Gemini operations and how the new instru-
ment (an eight-channel imager and spectro-
graph) would be successfully integrated. The
teams came together again in early August
for the Conceptual Design Review in Hilo,
Hawai‘i (Figure 6).
Figure 6.
In August, the
OCTOCAM team met
at Gemini North in
Hilo, Hawai‘i, for the
instrument’s Conceptual
Design Review.
Pete Roaming (Project Manager for South-
west Research Institute) and Christina Thöne
(Deputy Project Manager from the Institute
of Astrophysics of Andalusia in Spain) led the
presentations on work accomplished during
the project’s first four months. An external
review panel chaired by John Troeltzsch
from Ball Aerospace reviewed the required
documents and led a discussion of progress
thus far.
The OCTOCAM team benefited from a sum-
mit tour to familiarize themselves with the
telescope’s physical structure, Acquisition
and Guidance unit, and space envelope. A
panel report was submitted to Scot Klein-
man (Gemini’s Associate Director of Devel-
opment) to be incorporated into recommen-
dations to the team as they advance to the
preliminary design stage.
— Catherine Blough
GeminiFocus
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