GeminiFocus 2017 Year in Review | Page 53

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 51