GIRMOS is in the very early stages of devel-
opment, and the team, led by Suresh Siva-
nandam (Principal Investigator; University
of Toronto, Dunlap Institute) and Darren Er-
ickson (Project Engineer; HAA), have been
working extremely hard to complete a con-
ceptual design for the instrument and to
identify the resources needed to make the
project a success. We are very happy to re-
port that they passed their Conceptual De-
sign Review on September 18, 2019, follow-
ing a very exciting few days of presentations
and discussions at the Dominion Astrophysi-
cal Observatory, in Victoria, British Columbia
(Figure 12). We look forward to continuing to
work with this great team as they move for-
ward to the next stage of the project. Con-
gratulations to the team!
Multiple Opportunities
to Use IGRINS
You probably remember when the visiting
Immersion GRating INfrared Spectrometer
(IGRINS) came to Gemini South in 2018. This
cross-dispersed near-IR spectrograph —
with a resolving power of R = 45,000, cover-
ing the H and K windows (from 1.45 to 2.5 mi-
crons), in a single exposure, providing both
broad spectral coverage and high spectral
resolution — had a very high oversubscrip-
tion rate. A large number of very impressive
programs were observed, but even with the
January 2020 / 2019 Year in Review
exceptional instrument team supporting 50
nights of observing, we were not able to fit
in all of the great science that was proposed.
If you missed your chance to use IGRINS in
2018, never fear! We are delighted to an-
nounce that IGRINS will join us once again
at Gemini South for several semesters, start-
ing with 2020A. If you were not able to get
your proposal in for the 20A deadline, don’t
despair, keep your eye out for IGRINS in the
next several Calls for Proposals.
20th Anniversary Gemini
Science Meeting
Figure 12.
GIRMOS PI Suresh
Sivanandam (University
of Toronto, Dunlap
Institute; in shadow at
the front of the room)
presents the agenda
to the Review Panel,
project members, and
participating Gemini
staff at a GIRMOS
Conceptual Design
Review held at HAA
in Victoria, British
Columbia.
Credit: Marcin Sawicki
(Saint Mary’s University)
Gemini Observatory invites its interna-
tional user community to Seoul, Korea, for
a special 20th anniversary Gemini Science
Meeting (GSM) celebrating 20 years of sci-
ence operations and a look forward to even
more exciting things to come. Hosted by the
Partnership’s newest member, the topics
will include the latest scientific results from
Gemini, news on current instrumentation
projects, updates on operations develop-
ments, and lively discussion of Gemini’s stra-
tegic plans for the coming decade. The GSM
will take place June 21-25, 2020, followed by
the K-GMT Users’ Meeting on June 26th. (See
poster, next page.) For information and up-
dates, see the Gemini Science Meeting 2020
website.
GeminiFocus
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