fiber integral field units (that capture all the
light), and their corresponding atmospheric
dispersion correctors.
The Australian Astronomical Observatory de-
signed and built the Cassegrain unit, with the
Australian National University providing the
needed software. Members of each organiza-
tion traveled from Australia to Cerro Pachón
in Chile to unpack, assemble, and test the
unit; they also had critical support from the
Gemini South day crew, and from other Gem-
ini GHOST team members.
The combined teams prepared and installed
the Cassegrain unit on the telescope’s ISS to
make the first checks on sky in early Febru-
ary (Figure 13). company that specializes in astronomical in-
strumentation and scientific software work-
ing on the instrument’s optomechanicals) in
Madrid, Spain.
The team had a successful night of testing,
with the instrument performing very well.
A few of the evening’s accomplishments in-
cluded confirming that GHOSTS’ coordinate
systems and field center were aligned with-
in our measurements, and ensuring that
the probe map of the positioners was well
behaved. The team also mapped the unit’s
coordinate systems to the sky, acquired tar-
gets repeatedly over the entire seven arc-
minute field of view, and verified that target
acquisition (both direct and via spiral search)
worked as expected in both the single target
and two target modes. The team is enthusi-
astic about the performance of the GHOST
Cassegrain unit and look forward to the ar-
rival of the spectrograph from Canada’s Na-
tional Research Council-Herzberg. In March, Gemini Observatory announced
Massimo Robberto of Space Telescope Sci-
ence Institute and Johns Hopkins University
as the new OCTOCAM Principal Investiga-
tor (Figure 14). OCTOCAM also welcomed
Todd Veach of Southwest Research Institute
(SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas, as the OCTO-
CAM Instrument Scientist.
OCTOCAM Making
Great Strides
OCTOCAM — Gemini’s next generation im-
ager and spectrograph — has had a busy
start to 2018. In January, a Quarterly Prog-
ress Review took place at George Washing-
ton University in the United States and at
FRACTAL S.L.N.E. (a private technological
January 2019 / 2018 Year in Review
Figure 13.
GHOST team members
(left to right) Tony Farrell,
John Bassett, Gabriella
Baker, Ross Zhelem,
Peter Young, Lew Waller,
Richard McDermid, Steve
Margheim, and Manuel
Gomez observe some of
the first light captured by
the GHOST Cassegrain
unit at Cerro Pachón.
Credit: David Henderson
Coming up, the Preliminary Design Review
will take place at SwRI on April 4-5, 2018. John
Troeltzsch of Ball Aerospace will chair the ex-
ternal review panel, which has deep expertise
and a world of experience in instrumentation
development and project management. OC-
TOCAM remains on schedule (and on budget)
to be commissioned by the start of 2023.
Figure 14.
TOPTICA Laser at Gemini South
After over two years of feasibility studies,
specifications, design studies, tests, integra-
tions, and validations, Gemini South’s new
TOPTICA Phototronics AG laser had its first
night of commissioning on October 26, 2017.
It took only ten minutes for the upgrade proj-
ect’s team of scientists, observers, and engi-
neers to see our lovely five laser guide star
constellation back on sky using the acqui-
GeminiFocus
Massimo Robberto, the
new OCTOCAM Principal
Investigator.
53