OCTOBER 2018
Figure 2.
Polarimetry Abounds at
Gemini North
In July and August 2018, we had the plea-
sure of two visiting instruments pushing the
boundaries of polarization observations at
Gemini North. First Jeremy Bailey and Daniel
Cotton (both University of New South Wales)
arrived to test their “new-to-us” instrument
HIPPI-2 (Figures 2 and 3). Designed to cap-
ture the direct polarization signatures of
exoplanets, this instrument has been in use
at the 3.9-meter Anglo-Australian Telescope
with spectacular results (Bott et al., Monthly
Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
459: L109, 2016). The Gemini visit also went
well, and though the instrument has not
been made available for science observa-
tions yet, these initial tests will be very help-
ful in characterizing the polarization charac-
teristics of the Gemini North telescope. We
hope to include HIPPI-2 in a future Call for
Proposals, so please remember to check the
list of visiting instruments whenever a new
call comes out!
In early August, we hosted a science visit by
Principal Investigator Sloane Wiktorowicz
(The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo,
California) with his instrument POLISH-2
(Figure 4). Aimed at exoplanet reflection po-
larimetry, POLISH-2 is available to the com-
munity, and we encourage everyone to have
a look at the Call for Proposals and contact
Sloane (using the details provided there) if
they wish to take advantage of this cutting-
edge polarimeter on Gemini North. The
amount of time our visiting instruments are
available on the telescope is driven by the
number of successful proposals, so we en-
courage everyone to go for it! The exciting
results of this recent observing run are being
prepared for publication now.
January 2019 / 2018 Year in Review
Jeremy Bailey (left)
and Daniel Cotton
(right) attach their tiny
HIPPI-2 instrument
to the bottom port of
Gemini North, with
help from Harlan
Uehara (Maunakea Site
Manager, center).
Credit: All photos on this
page by Alison Peck
MAROON-X: Coming Soon!
MAROON-X is the hotly anticipated new
spectrograph in construction at the Univer-
sity of Chicago that will be coming to Gem-
ini North as a visiting instrument next year
(Figures 4 and 5). MAROON-X is expected to
have the capability to detect Earth-size plan-
ets in the habitable zones of mid- to late-M
dwarfs using the radial velocity method. The
instrument will be a high-resolution, bench-
mounted spectrograph designed to deliver 1
meter per second radial velocity precision for
M dwarfs down to and beyond V = 16. More
information about MAROON-X can be found
in the January 2018 issue of GeminiFocus.
As this instrument will be located in the Pier
Lab, under the telescope, in its own thermal-
ly controlled enclosure, Gemini has commis-
sioned a Front End to interface to the Instru-
ment Support Structure. This unit will hold
GeminiFocus
Figure 3 (left).
Harlan Uehara (left) and
Gemini North’s Senior
Instrumentation Engineer
John White (right) position
the ballast weight assembly
so that it attaches to the
instrument port around
HIPPI-2. The ballast weight
is necessary to balance
the telescope because
HIPPI-2 weighs much,
much less than the facility
instruments!
Figure 4 (right).
Gemini day crew
members Clayton Ah Hee
(left) and Rody Kawaihae
(right, kneeling) assist
Sloane Wiktorowicz
(center) in installing
POLISH-2.
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